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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES! 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

Pees. Printing and Publishing Co., 1510 Chestnut Street. 

1880. 









Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at 
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',0 7-fe 



Gen'l J. A. GARFIELD. 



It is the glory of our free institutions that they develop the 
talent and stimulate the ambition of the people. With us there 
is no privileged class, — none that can claim a monopoly of posi- 
tion or power. The broad avenues of progress and promotion 
are as open and accessible to the poor as to the rich, and the 
incentives to enter them are equally strong to both. 

If, indeed, there is any difference, in this regard, between those 
on whom Fortune has lavishly bestowed her gifts, and others 
whose life has been a constant combat with external disadvan- 
tages and unpropitious influences, that difference is in favor of the 
latter. The very obstacles to elevation which they have to sur- 
mount, the very current which they have to breast, generate and 
evoke a noble energy, and unfold those elements of character 
which are essential to success, but which could not, in other and 
easier circumstances, have been half so well accpuired or matured. 
It is the experience, not of the luxurious barracks, but of the 
tented field, the trench, and night-watch, which makes the better 
and hardier soldier. It is not the exotic nursed in glass and 
artificial heat which is the type of strength, but the plant 
struggling for existence on bleak cliffs, or the pine battling with 
Alpine gusts or shivering amid Alpine snows. 

As a general rule, our " self-made men " are the best [for 
offices of honor and trust. From the severe schooling to which 
they have been subjected, they know more of themselves, more of 
the country, more of the world, than do those who have inherited 



4 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

the effeminating luxuries of wealth, and thus they are better 
fitted to shoulder grave responsibilities, and render exalted and 
useful service to the public. Our national history is full of ex- 
amples of this truth, yet few, if any, are more striking and 
suggestive than those which are now to be considered. 

JAMES ABRAHAM GARFIELD 

was born in the township of Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on 
the 19th of November, 1831. His father, Abraham Garfield, 
who had emigrated from New York, lived on a small farm, and 
it was as much as he could do to support his family, which, 
after the birth of James, consisted of a wife and four children. 
Before James was two years old his father died. The family 
life before had been close and hard enough, now it became closer 
and harder. But the widow was a woman of unusual euergy, 
faith, and courage. She said the children should not be sepa- 
rated, but kept together, and that the home should be main- 
tained as when its head was living. The battle was a hard 
one, but she won it, and not until James reached his seven- 
teenth year did he leave home. Much earlier than that, how- 
ever, he learned the carpenter's trade, and thereby assisted in 
supporting the family. Meanwhile he was able to pick up the 
rudiments of an education by attending the district school a few 
months in each year, even after he had begun to work at his 
trade. In his seventeenth year he obtained employment as a 
driver on the tow-path of the Ohio canal, and soon rose to the 
rank of a boatman, the dream of his ambition being to become 
a sailor on the lakes. 

The General says that two reasons were instrumental in caus- 
ing him to abandon the canal. One was his mother, and the 
other was the " ague cake" in his side. He had worked but a 
short time when he began to feel the ague in his system, and it 
finally assumed a very serious form. His money fell into the 
water, and diving after it, the thorough wetting which followed 
increased his disease. The next day's warm sun dried his clothes, 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. O 

hut he was sicker than ever with the chills, and he determined, 
upon reaching Cleveland, to go and visit his mother and lie off 
long enough to get well. 

It was after dark when he approached the home of the widow 
and orphan. Coming quietly near, he heard her voice in prayer 
-within. He bowed and listened. As the fervent prayer went 
on, he heard her pray for him. When the voice ceased, he softly 
raised the latch and entered. Her prayers were answered. Not 
until after that time did he know that his going away had 
crushed her. He was at once prostrated with the " ague cake," 
as the hardness of the left side is popularly called. One of the 
old school M.D.'s salivated him, and for several awful months 
he lay on the bed with a board so adjusted as to conduct the 
flow of saliva from his mouth while the cake was dissolving 
under the influence of calomel. 

In the fall of 1848 young Garfield went to work digging 
potatoes for Samuel Patrick at $7 per month. Mr. Patrick, 
who still lives in Solon, in Cuyahoga County, with many other 
people had noticed that young Garfield was an unusually bright 
boy, and he said to him one day: " Jim, you ought to be doing 
something better than digging potatoes at $7 a month." 
"Well, what shall I do?" asked young Garfield. 
" Try to get yourself a place where you can earn your ooard 
by doing chores around the house, and go to school and get an 
education. You can do that, and in two or three years I would 
not be surprised if you could earn $25 per month teaching 
hool." 

The young man's eyes opened wide at the suggestion of such 
large wages, and he showed by his looks that he felt really a 
great interest in Mr. Patrick's proposition. He said, deter- 
minedly: — 

" Mr. Patrick, I will try to do it." 

It was not long after this conversation until Mr. Patrick dis- 
covered that his parents, a venerable old couple, needed just 
such a boy as Jim Garfield, and he apprised that youth of his 
good fortune. The lad at once took up his residence with old 



O GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

Mr. Patrick, and he lived with him through that winter, doing 
odd johs about the farm and attending school. At this time 
Garfield was a great athlete, and he could " handle" any boy of 
his size and age in the county. His reputation for strength and 
agility was even wider than that, as he was known all along the 
canal as a most athletic young man. During the winter at 
school he used every moment of his time to advance himself, 
and the consequence was that he became the first of the scholars. 
His progress in the common-school branches was perfectly won- 
derful, and instead of taking two or three years to prepare 
himself for teaching, as Mr. Patrick had suggested, he was able 
to take a district school " at twenty-five dollars per month" the 
very next winter. From this time he continued to support him- 
self, and with what he had saved of his salary as teacher and 
the little sum he picked up at his trade as a carpenter, he was 
able to go to Geauga Seminary, a Free-Will Baptist institution. 
About this time he was converted, and became a prominent 
member of the Disciples' or Christian Church. In a short time 
he developed unusual power as a public speaker, and it was not 
long before he was known for many miles around as the most 
eloquent young man in his county. It his school days he used 
to take the part of " the member from New York" in the minia- 
ture House of Congress which his elocution class formed itself 
into. He is said to have enjoyed this exceedingly, and his 
oratory excelled that of all the others. He is remembered also 
as being at that time a really skillful artist. 

About this time, as just intimated, the General undertook 
school-teaching, and Sheriff Stiles, of Ashtabula County, Ohio, 
was one of his pupils. The future Presidential candidate 
boarded with the Sheriff's mother. Young Garfield had but a 
single suit of clothes, and that was Kentucky jean. He had no 
overcoat and no underclothing Finally, near the close of the 
school, the pantaloons began to get exceedingly thin, and at last, 
while bending over, one of the knees tore half around, expos- 
ing the bare skin. The chagrined pedagogue pinned the rent 
garment to the best of his ability, and that night he expressed 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 



his regret at his poverty and inability to see his way out of the 
dilemma. 

" Why, that is easy enough," said good Mrs. Stiles ; " you go 
to bed, and one of the boys will bring down your pants, and I 
will carefully dam the hole, so it will be better than new. You 
should not care about such small matters as that. You will 
forget all about them when you get to be President ! " 

When he was twenty-three years of age, young Garfield, under 
the advice of his mother, and concluding that he had got about 
all that was to be had in the obscure cross-roads academy, deter- 
mined to enter college. He calculated that he had saved about 
half enough money to get through college, provided he could 
begin, as he hoped, with the Junior year. He got a life insur- 
ance policy, and assigned it to a gentleman as security for a 
loan, to make up the amount he lacked. In the fall of 1854 
he entered the Junior class of Williams College, Massachusetts. 
When he wrote around to Yale, Brown, and Williams, making 
inquiries, President Hopkins alone seemed to take a personal 
interest in him by adding : " If you come here we shall be glad 
to do what we can for you." To a friend he writes at that date : 
" Other things being so near equal, this sentence, which seems 
to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the ques- 
tion for me. I shall start for Williams next week." " Strongly 
religious in his early bent," says the Springfield (Mass.) Republi- 
can, "it was natural that he gravitated to the home of American 
missions. His old mates recall him as a big young man, quite 
German in appearance,— so strong is good Saxon blood, after 
centuries of exile from the Saxon land,— blonde and bearded, 
Strong-limbed, serious, but sociable, and with the Western easy- 
going manners, ready wit, and broad sympathy going out to- 
ward all his fellows. The boys called him 'Old Gar,' so 
readily did ho assume the patriarchate of the college, in the 
briei two years that he was there. He boarded in club, and 
• lid not smoke or drink. He was a contributor to the Williams 
Quarterly, and on a visit to this city to see about the printing of 
the college paper first made the acquaintance of the late Samuel 



} 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 



Bowles. Among his classmates were Stephen W. Bowies, now 
a well-known physician in this city ; Henry E. Knox, the New 
York lawyer ; and James Gilfillan, of Belchertown, now Treas- 
urer of the United States. Dr. Hopkins and the Faculty readily 
recognized in Garfield a man of unusual stuff, and early estab- 
lished that good understanding which usually exists between 
teachers and responsive pupils. Dr. Hopkins unquestionably 
moulded the plastic man in him — a grand product of the 
teacher's power. There is one other teacher to whom he owed 
much before he came to Williams, — Miss Booth, a teacher in the 
academy in Ohio, a rare woman for her influence upon the 
youth who fell under her sway. It was at Williams College 
that he acquired the power of thinking and speaking on his 
feet, which makes him to-day one of the most effective orators 
in the country, either before the people or in a parliamentary 
body. He infused new life into the public debating societies at 
Williams, and has often expressed his indebtedness to them." 

Young Garfield graduated in 1856 with the metaphysical 
honors of his class. Before he went to college he had connected 
himself with the Disciples, a sect having a numerous member- 
ship in Eastern and Southern Ohio, West Virginia, and Ken- 
tucky, where its founder, Alexander Campbell, had traveled 
and preached. The principal peculiarities of the denomination 
are their refusal to formulate their beliefs into a creed, the inde- 
pendence of each congregation, the hospitality and fraternal 
feeling of the members, and the lack of a regular ministry. 

Just at this point a remarkable coincidence requires attention. 
North Pownal, Bennington County, Vermont, formerly known 
as Whipple's Corners, is situated in the southwestern corner of 
the State, and by the usually traveled road is an hour's ride 
from New York, through the corner of Vermont, by way of 
North Pownal, into the State of Massachusetts. In 1851. 
Chester A. Arthur, fresh from Union College, came to Nort'L 
Pownal, and for one summer taught the village school. About 
two years later, James A. Garfield, then a young student at 
Williams College, several miles distant, in order to obtain the 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. V 

necessary means to defray his expenses while pursuing his 
studies, came also to North Pownal, and established a writing- 
school in the same room formerly occupied by Mr. Arthur, and 
taught classes in penmanship during the long winter evenings. 
Thus, from a common starting-point in early life, after a lapse 
of more than a quarter of a century, after years of manly toil, 
these distinguished men are, by the action of the Chicago Con- 
vention, brought into a close relationship before the nation and 
before the civilized world. 

When Garfield returned to Ohio it was natural he should 
gravitate to the struggling little college of the sect with which 
he had connected himself, at Hiram, Portage County, near his 
boyhood's home. He became Professor of Latin and Greek, 
and threw himself with the energy and industry which are lead- 
ing traits of his character into the work of building up the in- 
stitution. Before he had been two years in his professorship he 
was appointed President of the college. Hiram is a lonesome 
country village, three miles from a railroad, built upon a high 
hill, overlooking twenty miles of cheese-making country to the 
southward. It contains fifty or sixty houses, clustered around 
the green, in the centre of which stands the homely red brick 
college structure. Plain living and high thinking were the order 
of things at Hiram College in those days. The teachers were 
poor, the pupils were poor, and the institution was poor, but 
there was a great deal of hard, faithful study done, and many 
ambitious plans formed. The young President taught, lectured, 
and preached, and all the time studied as diligently as any aco- 
lyte in the temple of knowledge. He frequently spoke on Sun- 
days in the churches of the towns of the vicinity to create an 
interest in the college. Among the Disciples any one can 
preach who has a mind to, no ordination being required. From 
these Sunday discourses came the story that Garfield at one 
time was a minister. He never considered himself such, and 
never had any intention of finding a career in the pulpit. His 
ambition, if he had any outside of the school, lay in the direc- 
tion of law and politics. 



10 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

In 1857, while Professor of Latin and Greek at the Eclectic 
Institute, Mr. Garfield was married to Miss Lucretia Rudolph, 
the daughter of a farmer living near Hiram, whose acquain- 
tance he had made while studying at the academy, where she 
was a pupil. The marriage was one purely of love, and much 
of the husband's prosperity in life has been due to the quiet 
influence of the wife. He purchased a little cottage, fronting 
on the college campus, and they began their wedded life poor 
and in debt, but with brave hearts. Mrs. Garfield is a quiet, 
thoughtful, and refined woman, fond of reading and study, and 
of a warm heart. 

Two years after his marriage the political life began. His 
sermons had attracted attention to him, and in 1859 he was 
brought forward by the anti-slavery people of Portage and 
Summit counties as their candidate for State Senator. He was 
elected by a large majority, and, young as he was, he at once 
took high rank in the Ohio Legislature as a man unusually 
well informed on the subjects of legislation, and effective and 
powerful in debate. He seemed always prepared to speak, and 
always spoke fluently and well. When the secession of the 
Southern States began, Mr. ( rarfield's course was manly and out- 
spoken, and he was among the foremost to maintain the right 
of the National Government to coerce seceded States. 

Under his leadership a bill was passed declaring any resident 
of the State who gave aid and comfort to the enemies of the 
United States guilty of treason against the State, to be punished 
by imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. When the first 
regiments of Ohio troops were raised, the Stat,; was wholly un- 
prepared to equip them, and Mr. Garfield was dispatched to 
Illinois to procure arms. He succeeded in procuring five thou- 
sand muskets, which were immediately shipped to Columbus. 
On his return, Mr. Garfield was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel 
ol the 42d Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. Soon after the organ- 
ization of the regiment, he was, without his own solicitation, 
made its Colonel. 

In December, 1861, his regiment was ordered to Kentucky, 
where he reported to General Buell, and was assigned to the 



GENERAL J. A. OARFIELJD. 11 

command of the 18th Brigade, with orders to drive the rebel 
forces under Humphrey Marshall out of the Sandy Valley, in 
Eastern Kentucky. As Humphrey Marshall threatened the 
flank of General Buell's forces, it was necessary that he should 
be dislodged before a movement could successfully be made by 
the main army upon the rebels' position at Bowling Green. A 
citizen soldier, who had never been in battle, was thus placed in 
command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of 
cavalry, charged with the duty of leading them against an 
officer who had led the famous charge of the Kentucky Volun- 
teers at Buena Vista. Marshall had under his command nearly 
four thousand men, stationed at Paintville, sixty miles up the 
Sandy Valley. He was expected to advance to Lexington, and 
establish the authority of the provisional government at the 
State Capital. Colonel Garfield took command of his brigade 
at the mouth of the Big Sandy, and moved with it directly up 
the valley. Marshall heard of the advance and fell back to 
Prestonburg, leaving a small force of cavalry near his old posi- 
tion to act as an outpost and to protect his trains. This cavalry 
fled before the advance of Colonel Garfield's forces. He pushed 
the pursuit with his cavalry till Marshall's infantry outposts 
were reached, and then, drawing back, he encamped his whole 
force at Paintville. On the morning of the 9th of January 
Garfield advanced with twenty-four hundred men, leaving about 
one thousand waiting for supplies at Paintville. Before night- 
fall he had driven in the enemy's pickets. The men slept on 
their arms under a soaking rain, and by 4 o'clock in the morn- 
ing were again in motion. Marshall's force occupied the heights 
of Middle Creek, two miles west of Prestonburg. Garfield 
advanced cautiously, and after some hours came suddenly in 
front of Marshall's position between the forks of the creek. 
Two columns were moved forward, one on either side of the 
creek, and the rebels immediately opened upon them with 
musketry and artillery. Garfield reinforced both his columns, 
but the action soon developed itself mainly on the left, where 
Marshall concentrated his whole force. Garfield's reserve was 



12 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

under fire from the enemy's artillery. He was entirely without 
artillery to reply, but from behind the trees and rocks the men 
kept up a brisk fusilade. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon rein- 
forcements from Paintville arrived. Unwonted enthusiasm was 
aroused, and the approaching column was received with pro- 
longed cheering. Garfield promptly firmed his whole reserve 
for attacking the enemy's right and carrying his guns. With- 
out awaiting the result, Marshall hastily abandoned his posi- 
tion, fired his camp equipage, and begun a retreat, which was 
not ended till he reached Almydon, Virginia. Now occurred 
another trial of Garfield's energy. His troops were almost out 
of rations, in a rough mountainous country incapable of 
furnishing supplies. Excessive rains had swollen the Sandy to 
such a height that steamboat men declared that it was impossi- 
ble to ascend the river with supplies. Colonel Garfield went 
down the river in a skiff to its mouth, and ordered the "Sandy 
Valley," a small steamer which had been in the quarter-master's 
service, to take a load of supplies and start up. The captain 
declared it impossible, but Colonel Garfield ordered the crew on 
board. He stationed a competent army officer on board to see 
that the captain did his duty, and himself took the wheel. The 
little vessel trembled in every fibre as she breasted the raging 
flood, which swept among the tree-tops along the banks. The 
perilous trip occupied two days ani nights, during which time 
Colonel Garfield was only eight hours absent from the wheel. 
The men in camp greeted with tumultuous cheering the arrival 
of the boat with their gallant commander as pilot. At the pass 
across the mountain, known as Pound Gap, Humphrey Marshall 
kept up a post of observation, held by a force of five hundred 
men. On the 14th day of March Garfield started with five 
hundred infantry and two hundred cavalry to dislodge this de- 
tachment. On the evening of the second day's march he 
reached the foot of the mountain, two miles north of the gap. 
Next morning he sent the cavalry along the main road leading 
to the enemy's position, while he led the infantry by an un- 
frequented route up the side of the mountain. While the enemy 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 13 

watched the cavalry, Garfield led the infantry undiscovered to 
the very border of their camp. The enemy were taken by sur- 
prise, and a few volleys dispersed them. They retreated in 
confusion down the eastern slope of the mountain, pursued for 
several miles into Virginia by the cavalry. The troops rested 
for the night in the comfortable huts which the enemy had built, 
and the next morning burned them down, together with every- 
thing left by the enemy -which they could not carry away. 
These operations, though on a small scale compared with the 
magnificent movements of a later period in the war, yet had a 
very considerable importance. They were the first of a brilliant, 
series of successes which reassured the despondent in the spring 
of 1862. They displayed a military capacity in the civilian 
Colonel, and a bravery in the raw recruits, which argued well 
for the success of the volunteer army. Colonel Garfield received 
high praise from General Buell and the War Department. He 
was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, his commission 
bearing the date of the battle of Middle Cre^k. Six days after 
the capture of Pound Gap, General Garfield transferred the 
larger part of his command to Louisville, but as the Army of 
the Ohio was already beyond Nashville on its march to aid 
Grant at Pittoburg Landing, he made haste to join General Buell, 
who placed him in command of the 20th Brigade. He reached 
the field of Pittsburg Landing at 1 o'clock of the second day of 
the battle, and bore a part in its closing scenes. His brigade 
bore its full share in the tedious siege before Corinth, and was 
among the foremost t«> enter the abandoned town after its 
evacuation by the enemy. He soon after marched eastward 
with his brigade, and built all the bridges on the Memphis and 
Charleston Railroad between Corinth and Decatur, and took 
post at Huntsville, Alabama. General Garfield was soon after 
put at the head of the court-martial for the trial of General 
Turchin. He manifested a capacity for such work which led 
to his subsequent detail for similar service. About the first of 
August, his health having been seriously impaired, he went 
home on sick-leave. As soon as he recovered, he was ordered to 



14 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

report in person at "Washington. He was made a member of 
the court-martial for the trial of Fitz-John Porter. Most of 
the autumn was occupied with the duties of this detail. In 
January, 1863, General Garfield was appointed chief of staff 
of the Army of the Cumberland, which was commanded by 
General Rosecrans. He became the intimate friend and confi- 
dential acviser of his chief, and bore a prominent part in all 
the military operations in Middle Tennessee during the spring 
and summer of 1863. The final military service of General 
Garfield was in the battle of Chickamauga. Every order issued 
dhat day with one exception was written by him. He wrote the 
orders on the suggestion of his own judgment, afterward sub- 
mitting them to General Rosecrans for approval or change. 
The only order not written by him was that fatal one to General 
Wood, which lost the battle. The words did not correctly con- 
vey the meaning of the commanding general. General Wood, 
the division commander, so interpreted them as to destroy the 
rio-ht wing. The services of General Garfield were appropri- 
ately recognized by the War Department in his promotion to 
the rank of Major-General of volunteers, "for gallant and 
meritorious conduct in the Battle of Chickamauga." 

The following reminiscence, related by a citizen of Audenried, 
Pa., is interesting in this connection : — 

" Garashee, Rosecran's chief of staff, was killed the first day 
of the fight at Murfreesboro'. A solid shot left his body head- 
less. 'Old Rosey,' as he was familiarly and affectionately called 
by the boys, who was at Garashee's side when the fatal shot took 
effect, glanced at his faithful officer's corpse, and, exclaiming, 
* Poor fellow !' called out, ' Scatter ! gentlemen, scatter !' The 
order was obeyed by staff and orderlies with more than alacrity, 
as the enemy had us in blank .range of a well-manned battery, 
the shot flying thick and fast, without any apparent respect of 
persons. A few days after, I do not remember how many, but 
it was after we had got into quarters in the town of Murfrees- 
boro', Garfield joined us to take the dead man Garashee's place 
as chief of s^aff. We boys thought he was a perfect success, 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 15 

and, as an illustration of his kindness of heart, a virtue not 
often practiced by army officers in the field towards subordi- 
nates at least, give you this little story : One night, very late, 
the boys being rolled in their blankets on the hall floor asleep, 
and I at my post, sitting on a chair at the commanding general's 
door, awaiting orders to be taken to their destination by my 
then sleeping comrades, — the light but a tallow candle stuck in 
a sardine box, — I, with chair tilted against the wall, had fallen 
asleep, too, when General Garfield, the new chief of staff, 
emerged from the head-quarter room quickly. Not noticing my 
extended limbs, he tripped over them and dropped to hands and 
knees on the floor. As he was no light weight even then, the 
fall was not easy. Affrighted, I jumped to my feet, stood at 
attention, and, as the General arose, saluted, expecting nothing 
else than to be cuffed and probably kicked, too, from one end of 
the hall to the other. But to my astonishment he quietly and 
kindly said : ' Excuse me, Sergeant.' I not only excused him, 
but, with all our little command, to whom the incident was told, 
revered him." 

The subjoined estimate of General Garfield's character formed 
in 1868 by Whitelaw Reid, and published in his " Ohio in the 
War," is here in point : — 

" General Garfield's military career was not of a nature to sub- 
ject him to trials on a large scale. He approved himself a good 
independent commander in the small operations in the Sandy 
Valley. His campaign there opened our series of successes in 
the West; and, though fought against superior forces, began 
with us the habit of victory. Afier that he was only a subordi- 
nate. But he always enjoyed the confidence of his immediate 
superiors, and of the department. As a chief of staff he was 
unrivaled. There, as elsewhere, he was ready to accept the 
gravest responsibilities in following his convictions. The bent 
of his mind was aggressive ; his judgment of purely military 
matters was good ; his papers on the Tullahoma campaign will 
stand a monument of his courage and his far-reaching soldierly 
sagacity, and his conduct at Chickainauga will never be for- 
gotten by a nation of brave men. 



16 GKNERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

"In political life he is bold, manly, and outspoken. He seem* 
to care far more for the abstract justice of propositions than for 
any prejudices his constituents may happen to entertain regard- 
ing them; and he has on several occasions been willing to 
espouse very unpopular measures and act with very small mi- 
norities. He once recorded his vote, solitary and alone, against 
that of every voting member of the House, on a call of the yeas 
and nays. But he is not factious ; and, without ever surrender- 
ing his independence of judgment, he is still reckoned among 
the most trusty of the Radical majority. 

" Personally, he is generous, warm-hearted, and genial. No 
man keeps up more cordial relations with his political antago- 
nists, — a trait of character in which he is the exact opposite of 
his intimate friend, General Schcnck, — and no man has warmer 
or more numerous personal attachments. He retains the stu- 
dious habits of his early life, and probably makes more exhaust- 
ive examination of subjects before the House than almost any 
other of its leading members. In comprehensive and critical 
scholarship no man of his age now in public life in the country 
can be compared with him ; and, beyond Senator Sumner, he is 
probably without superiors. While in the army he used to 
carry the pocket editions of the Greek and Latin classics, for 
leisure readme, as other men would the latest novels." 

The Congressional district in which Garfield lived was the one 
long made famous by Joshua R. Giddings. The old anti-slavery 
champion grew careless of the art of politics toward the end of 
his career and came to look upon a nomination and re-election as 
a matter of course. His over-confidence was taken advantage of 
in 1858 by an ambitious lawyer named Hutchins to carry a con- 
vention against him. The friends of Giddings never forgave 
Hutchins and cast about for a means of defeating him. The old 
man himself was comfortably quartered in his Consulate at 
Montreal and did not care to make a fight to get back to Con- 
gress. So his supporters made use of the popularity of General 
Garfield and nominated him while he was in the field without 
asking his consent That was in 1862. When he heard of the 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 17 

nomination, Garfield reflected that it would be fifteen months be- 
fore the Congress would meet to which he would be elected, and 
believing, as did every one else, that the war could not pos- 
sibly last a year longer, concluded to accept. He has often 
been heard to express regret that he did not help fight the war 
through, and say that he never would have left the army to go to 
Congress had he foreseen that the struggle would continue be- 
yond the year 1863. He continued his military service up to 
the time Congress met. 

General Garfield's speech when he was nominated for the 
Senate is recalled as a timely document now. Speaking of his 
public life, he said : " Let me venture to point a single instance 
in regard to that work. During the twenty years that I have 
been in public (almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the 
United States) I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was 
mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow 
my conviction, at whatever personal cost to myself. I have rep- 
resented for many years a district in Congress whose approba- 
tion I greatly desired ; but though it may seem perhaps a little 
more egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approba- 
tion of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the only 
man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and live 
with, and die with, and if I could not have his approbation, I 
should have bad companionship. And in this larger constituency 
which has called me to represent them now, I can only do what 
is true to myself, applying the same rule ; and if I should be so 
unfortunate as to lose the confidence of this larger constituency, 
I must do what every other fair-minded man has to do, — carry 
his political life in his hands and take the consequences. But I 
must follow what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my 
life, and with that view of the case, and with that much per- 
sonal reference, I leave that subject. " 

On entering Congress, in December, 1863, General Garfield 

was placed upon the Committee on Military Affairs with Schenck 

and Farnsworth, who were also fresh from the field. He took 

an active part in the debates in the House and won a recognition 
2 



18 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

which few new members succeed in gaining. He was not popu- 
lar among his fellow-members during his first term. They 
thought him something of a pedant, because he sometimes 
showed his scholarship in his speeches, and they were jealous of 
his prominence. His solid attainments and amiable social 
qualities enabled him to overcome this prejudice during his 
second term, and he became on terms of close friendship with 
the best men in both Houses. His committee service during his 
second term was on the Ways and Means, which was quite to his 
taste, for it gave him an opportunity to prosecute the studies in 
finance and political economy which he had always felt a fond- 
ness for. He was a hard worker and a great reader in those 
days, going home with his arms full of books from the Con- 
gressional Library and sitting up late nights to read them. It 
was then that he laid the foundations of the convictions on the 
subject of national finance which he has since held to firmly 
all the storms of political agitation. He was renominated 
in . : 64, without opposition, but in 1866 Mr. Hutchins, whom 
he had supplanted, made an effort to defeat him. Hutchins 
canvassed the district thoroughly, but the convention nomi- 
nated '• J-arfield by acclamation. He has had no opposition since 
in his own party. In 1872 the Liberals and Democrats united 
to beat him, but his majority was larger than ever. In 1874 the 
Greenbackers and Democrats combined and put up a popular 
soldier against him, but they made no* impression on the result. 
The Ashtabula district, as it is generally called, is the most 
faithful to its representatives of any in the North. It has had 
but four members in half a century. 

In the Fortieth Congress General Garfield was Chairman of 
the Committee on Military Affairs. In the Forty-first he was 
given the Chairmanship of Banking and Currency, which he 
liked much better, because it waa in the line of his financial 
studies. His next promotion was to the Chairmanship of the 
Appropriations Committee, which he held until the Democrats 
came into power in the House in 1875. His chief work on that 
committee was a steady and judicious reduction of the expenses 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 19 

of the Government. In all the political struggles in Congress 
he has borne a leading part, his clear, vigorous, and moderate 
style of argument making him one of the most effective debaters 
in either House. 

When James G. Blaine went to the Senate, in 1877, the 
mantle of Republican leadership in the House was by common 
consent placed upon Garfield, and he has worn it ever since. 
In January last General Garfield was elected to the Senate to 
the seat which will be vacated by Allen G. Thurman on the 4th 
of March, 1881. He received the unanimous vote of the Re- 
publican caucus, an honor never given to any man of any party 
in the State of Ohio. Since his election he has been the re- 
cipient of many complimentary manifestations in Washington 
and in Ohio. 

The statement has been recently made in certain quarters that 
General Garfield's record on the tariff question is open to objec- 
tion. This statement, however, is satisfactorily answered by the 
following letter written by him, at the time of nomination, to a 
member of the Ohio Senate : — 

" Washington, D. C, Dec. 15, 1879. 

"Dear Sir: — Yours of the 12th inst., inclosing a slip from 
the Columbus Dispatch, is received. The writer of that article 
is either stupidly ignorant, or a willful falsifier. I have voted 
for every Republican tariff bill which has passed the House 
since I have been a member of it. I have made at least four 
elaborate speeches on the tariff since I have been in Congress, 
besides numerous short speeches in debates. My first full speech 
on the subject was in 186G a the second in 1870, and the third 
and fourth in 1878. I have been recognized for several years 
past as the leader of the Republican party on this subject, and 
every Republican member of the House knows my position, and, 
as I believe, approves it. In 1868 I made a speech in favor of 
the resumption of specie payments, in which I discussed elabo- 
rately the doctrines of money, and the obligation of the nation 
to pay its debt. The Secretary of the Treasury sent some copies 



20 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

of that speech to our Ministers in London, believing that it 
would strengthen our credit abroad. John Bright received a 
copy, and was so pleased with it that he had me elected an 
honorary member of the ' Cobden Club.' I had never before 
heard of this club, and up to that time Charles Sumner was the 
only member of Congress who had ever been thus complimented. 
Some years after that, I learned that the Cobden Club believed 
in free trade, as nearly all Englishmen do, but, of course, I was 
in no way responsible for the belief. This matter had been 
repeatedly explained in the iron districts, and it is fully under- 
stood by our leading iron men. I represent one of the heaviest 
iron districts in Ohio ; and in Mahoning County, where the 
largest mills and furnaces are situated, I ran ahead of the State 
and county ticket last year, and I have the support of almost 
every intelligent manufacturer of the district. I write this 
freely, that you may understand how entirely without founda- 
tion the article is in the Dispatch. Very truly, yours, 

"J. A. Garfield." 

Mr. E. V. Smalley, in his admirable sketch of General Gar- 
field for the Timet? " White House Gallery," says : — 

" As a leader in the House, Garfield is more cautious and less 
dashing than Blaine, and his judicial turn of mind makes him too 
prone to look for two sides of a question for him to be an effi- 
cient partisan. When the issue fairly touches his convictions, 
however, he becomes thoroughly aroused and strikes tremendous 
blows. Blaine's tactics were to continually harass the enemy by 
sharp-shooting surprises and picket-firing. Garfield waits for 
an opportunity to deliver a pitched battle, and his generalship 
is shown to best advantage when the fight is a fair one and 
waged on grounds where each party thinks itself strongest. 
Then his solid shots of argument are exceedingly effective. On 
the stump Garfield is one of the very best orators in the Repub- 
lican party. He has a good voice, an air of evident sincerity, 
great clearness and vigor of statement, and a way of knitting 
his arguments together so as to make a speech deepen its im- 
pression on the mind of the hearer until the climax is reached. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD.. 21 

" Of his industry and studious nabits a great deal might be 
said, but a single illustration will have to suffice here. Once 
during the busiest part of a very busy session at Washington I 
found him in his library, behind a big barricade of books. This 
was no unusal sight, but when I glanced at the volumes, I saw 
that they were all different editions of Horace, or books relating 
to that poet. ' I find I am over-worked and need recreation,' 
said the General. ' Now, my theory is. that the best way to rest 
the mind is not to let it be idle, but to put it at something quite 
outside of the ordinary line of its employment. So I am resting 
by learning all the Congressional Library can show about 
Horace and the various editious and translations of his poems."' 

General Garfield is the possessor of two homes, and his family 
migrates twice a year. Some ten years ago, finding how un- 
satisfactory life was in hotels and boarding-houses, he bought a 
lot of ground on the corner of 13th and I streets, in Washing- 
ton, and with money borrowed of a friend built a plain, substan- 
tial three-story house. A wing was extended afterward to make 
room for the fast-growing library. The money was repaid in 
time, and was probably saved in great part from what would 
otherwise have gone to landlords. The children grew up in 
pleasant home surroundings and the house became a centre of 
much simple and cordial hospitality. Five or six years ago the 
little cottage at Hiram was sold, and for a time the only resi- 
dence the Garfields had in his district was a summer house he 
built on Little Mountain, a bold elevation in Lake County, 
which commanded a view of thirty miles of rich farming coun- 
trv stretched along the shore of Lake Erie. Three years ago he 
bought a farm in Mentor, in the same county, lying on both 
sides of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. Here 
his family spend all the time when he is free from his duties in 
Washington. The farm-house is a low, old-fashioned, story-and- 
a-half building, but its limited accomodations have been supple- 
mented by numerous out-buildings, one of which General Gar- 
field uses for office and library purposes. The farm contains 
abt)ut one hundred and twenty acres of excellent land in a high 



22 . GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

state of cultivation, and the Congressman finds a recreation, of 
which he never tires, in directing the field work and making im- 
provements in the buildings, fences, and orchards. Cleveland 
is only twenty-five miles away ; there is a post-office and a rail- 
way station within half a mile, and the pretty country town of 
Painesville is but five miles distant. One of the pleasures of 
summer life on the Garfield farm is a drive of two miles through 
the woods to the lake shore and a bath in the breakers. 

General Garfield has five children living, and has lost two, 
who died in infancy. The two older boys, Harry and James, 
are now at school in Xew Hampshire. Mary, or Molly, as 
everybody calls her, is a handsome, rosy-cheeked girl of about 
twelve. The two younger boys are named Irwin and Abram. 
The General's mother is still living and has long been a member 
of his family. She is an intelligent, energetic old lady, with a 
clear head and a strong will, who keeps well posted in the news 
of the day, and is very proud of her son's career, though more 
liberal in criticism than of praise. 

General Garfield's district lies in the extreme northeastern 
corner of Ohio, and now embraces the counties of Ashtabula, 
Trumbull, Geauga, Lake, and Mahoning. His old home, county 
of Portage, was detached from it a year ago. With the excep- 
tion of the coal and iron regions in the extreme southern part, 
the district is purely a rural one, and is inhabited by a popu- 
lation of pure New England ancestry. It is claimed that there 
is less illiteracy in proportion to the population than in any 
other district in the United States. 

In person, General Garfield is six feet high, broad-shouldered, 
and strongly built. He has an unusually large head, that seems 
to be three-fourths forehead, light-brown hair and beard, large, 
light-blue eyes, a prominent nose, and full cheeks. He dresses 
plainly, is fond of broad-brimmed slouch hats and stout boots, 
eats heartily, cares nothing for luxurious living, is thoroughly 
temperate in all respects save in that of brain work, and is de- 
voted to his wife and children and very fond of his country 
home. Among men he is genial, approachable, companionable, 
and a remarkably entertaining talker. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 23 

The new house at Mentor, referred to above, was built 
almost entirely from Mrs. Garfield's plans. A sketch was 
drawn by an architect, and Mrs. Garfield filled it out, her hus- 
band marking in various directions with bold strokes of the 
pen. When the ideas of the wife had been put on paper, 
General Garfield wrote the following underneath as a gentle 
hiut to the builders : — 

" These plans must stand as above, unless otherwise oraered 
hereafter. If any part of them is impracticable, inform me 
soon and suggest change. 

" J. A. Garfield. 

" Washington, March 6, 1880." 

The Garfield farm-house cannot be called grand in any sense 
of the word, but will be a pleasant, very convenient country 
house. It is of the Gothic style of architecture, mingled, how- 
ever, with other styles, so as to form what the contractor terms 
a "mixture." A roomy porch extends along the front and 
part of the side toward Cleveland, affording opportunities for 
enjoyment in the fresh air, and out of the way of the heat of 
the sun. Lattice-work has been arranged in front for trailing 
vines. Sixty feet front by fifty deep is the size, and the struc- 
ture is two stories and one-half high. The apartments are all 
roomy for a country house, and the wide hallway attracts 
attention the first thing; on entering. 

General Garfield has marked that section of the plan where 
the pantry is located, " Plenty of shelves and drawers," and in 
the rear oart of the second floor is written : " Snuggery for 
General." The last-mentioned room is rather small, measuring 
only thirteen and a half by fourteen feet. It is to be fitted up 
with book-shelves, but Garfield will still continue to use as his 
library the detached building erected a year or two since in the 
yard, northeast of the house. Two of the best of the apart- 
ments in the eastern and front part of the edifice are being 
especially fitted up for the occupancy of Mrs. Garfield, the 
mother of the General. The front room has a 'arge, old- 



24 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

fashioned fireplace, and the pains being taken to make every- 
thing comfortable here plainly show the tender feelings that 
General Garfield bears towards her who gave him birth. 

Dr. Robison noticed a correspondent admiring this room, and 
said : " The General thinks everything of his mother. You 
know he chopped a hundred cords of wood once for twenty-five 
dollars, and took the money home to her." 

There are very few of the timbers of the old house over which 
the new has been constructed visible at this time, and Dr. 
Robison thinks there will be none in sight when the carpets are 
put down. The cost of the structure will be when finished but 
between $3500 and $4000, which will be remarkably slight 
when the expense of securing such workmen as were wanted, so 
far away from any city, is considered. The work has been 
hurried forward with rapidity, particularly within the last few 
weeks, as it was intended to get it as nearly finished as possible 
before General Garfield's return home from the present session 
of Congress. 

General Garfield's property may amount to $20,000. It 
consi.-t< i sclusively of his farm in Ohio and his house in 
Washington, and every dollar of it has been earned by his own 
exertions. He has saved a little every year from his salary, 
and this, with an occasional legal fee, has made up the bulk of 
his estate. 

THE NOMINATION. 

The nomination of General Garfield for the Presidency is one 
of the few instances in the political history of the country in 
which that high office has sought the man, instead of the man 
seeking the office. He was not a candidate for the nomination. 
When his name first came to be mentioned in connection with 
the office, the Cleveland Herald published, on February 28th, the 
following authoritative announcement of his position : — 

" We are authorized to say that all statements made, either in 
the press or by private persons, that General Garfield has changed 
his views in regard to the canvass of Secretary Sherman for the 
Presidency, are absolutely without foundation. General Garfield 
is not, and will not be, a candidate for President, and stand* 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 25 

squarely and flatly upon his letter recommending the Repub- 
licans of Ohio to give their united vote in favor of John Sherman 
for President. He believes that Mr. Sherman is the choice of a 
large majority of the party in this State, and that the highest 
political wisdom and the best interests of the Republicans will 
be advanced by sending a unanimous delegation from Ohio in 
his favor. We do not make this statement because we needed 
any assurance that General Garfield was the firm and devoted 
friend of Mr. Sherman, or that he had changed his views of the 
propriety and fitness of Mr. Sherman's nomination. But as so 
many statements have been made and telegraphic specials printed 
calculated to mislead the public, we desire to put the whole ques- 
tion at rest by an authoritative statement." 

As is well known, General Garfield nominated Mr. Sherman 
for the Presidency in the Chicago Convention. In doing so he 
spoke as follows : He said that he was always touched by a sen- 
timent in honor of a great and noble man. He had seen the sea 
in its fury of storm. It was a grand sight, but he remembered 
that after all it is the calm level of the sea from which all heights 
and depths are measured. He counseled them to calm and 
quiet consideration in the hour of determining their duties here. 
[Applause.] 

After an elegant review of the history and successes of the 
Republican party, Mr. Garfield went on to say : — 

" The Republican party has finished its twenty-five years of 
glory and success, and is here to-night to ask you to launch it on 
another lustrum of glory and victory. How shall you do it ? Not 
by assailing any Republican. [Cheers.] The battle this year is 
our Thermopylae. We stand on the narrow isthmus, and the 
little Spartan band must meet all the Greeks whom Xerxes can 
bring against them, and then the stars in their courses will fight 
for us. [Applause.] To win the victory we want the vote of 
every Grant Republican, and of every Blaine man, and of every 
anti-Blaine man. We are hereto take calm counsel together, 
and to inquire what we shall do. We want a man whose life and 
opinions embody all the achievements of which I have spoken. I 
am happy to present to you, and to name for your consideration. 



26 OKNKRAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

a man who was the comrade, the associate, and the friend of nearly 
all these persons whose faces look down upon us in this building 
to-night; a man who began his career in the politics of this 
country twenty-five years ago ; whose first service was done in 
the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when the first red drop 
of that blood-shower began to fall which increased into the del- 
uge of gore in the Rebellion. He stood by young Kansas then, 
and returned to his seat in the National Legislature. Through 
all the subseqent years his pathway has been marked by the 
labors which he has performed in every department of legislation. 
If you ask me for his monument, I point you to twenty-five years 
of the national statutes. There is not one great, one beneficent 
statute on your books within that time that has been placed there 
without his intelligent and powerful aid. He was one of the men 
who formulated the laws that raised our great armies and navies, 
and carried us through the war. His hand was in the workman- 
ship of the statutes which brought back the unity and married 
calm of these States. His hand was in all that great legislation 
which created the great war currency that carried us through 
and in the still greater work that redeemed the promise of the 
Government and made it good. [Applause.] 

" At last he passed from the halls of legislation into a high 
executive office, and there he displayed that experience, intelli- 
gence, firmness, and power of equipoise which, through a stormy 
period of two and a half years, with half the public press 
howling and crying, " Crucify him !" carried him through un- 
swerved by a single hair from the line of duty. He has im- 
proved the resources of the Government and the great business 
interests of the country, and has carried us through in the execu- 
tion of that law without ajar, in spite of the false prophets and 
Cassandras of half the continent. , [Applause.] 

" He has shown himself able to meet in the calmness of statesman- 
ship all the great emergencies of government. For twenty-five 
years he has trod that perilous height of public duty, and against 
all the shafts of malice he has borne his crest unharmed, and the 
blaze of that fierce light which has been upon him has f >uud no 
flaw in his honor, no stain on his shield. I do not present him 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 27 

as a better Republican or a better man than thousands of others 
whom we honor and revere, but I present him for your deliberate 
consideration. I nominate John Sherman, cf Ohio." 

In the Convention, after thirty-three ballots, it became evi-* 
dent beyond a doubt that neither Blaine, the great statesman, 
nor Grant, the eminent military chieftain, could be made the 
nominee for the Presidency. In the thirty-fourth ballot, one of 
the Grant men, the supporters of Washburne, with six of the 
Blaine men and one of the supporters of Sherman, went over in 
a body to James A. Garfield. The solitary Pennsylvanian,. who 
had kept Garfield's name before the Convention, suddenly found 
himself reinforced by 16 votes from one State. The audience 
thought they had heard the keynote which Avas to be followed by 
a harmony of sounds, and they cheered lustily. The roll-call 
disclosed no other change, but when the total vote was announced 
it was discovered that the Grant vote had risen to 312. 

As soon as the announcement had been made, Gen. Garfield 
was on his feet. " I rise to a question of order" said he. ."I 
question the correctness of the announcement of the vote. Votes 
for me are said to have been cast. My name is not before the 
Convention, and no delegate has a right to vote for me without 
my consent." 

"That is not a question of order," replied the Chairman,, 
who at once ordered another ballot. 

The thirty-fifth ballot showed that the union of the divided 
opposition upon Garfield was only a question ' of time. The 
Senator-elect had come to the Convention, as the friend of Miles 
Standish had sought the Puritan maiden, to plead the cause of 
another, and the Convention, like that maiden, ha^l taken coun- 
sel with its heart, and had chosen the agent in preference to 
the man whom he represented, and of whom he had drawn a 
purely ideal portrait. The roll-call found no change in the vote 
until the State of Indiana was reached. That State deserted 
Sherman and Washburne, left Blaine with only 2 votes and 
Grant with only 1, and cast 27 at the feet of Garfield. In 
Maryland the friends of Grant stood by their colors, but four 
Sherman men took refuge under the new banner. With them 



GENERAL J. A, GARFIELD. 



went a lonely Washburne voter in Mississippi, and one of the 

original Sherman men of North Carolina, Garfield's vote had 

risen to 50, Washburne could rally only 23, Sherman only 99, 

"and Blaine had fallen, in one ballot, from 27.3 to 257. But the 

Grant vote was larger than ever before. The addition of 1 vote 

in Minnesota had lifted it to 313. The vote, iu detail, was as 

follows : — 

.: v Fin a iullot. 






ST vi ES 



: 




H 




O 




> 




fc, 


H 


c 


15 




- 


c 


- 



y. 



Alabama 20 

is V2 

California 12 

« lolorado 6 

Lcu1 12 

Delaware 6 

Florida 8 

b 22 

Qlinois 42 

Indian;! 

Iowa 22 

Kansas 10 

Kentucky 24 

Louisiana 16 

Maine 11 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 26 

Michigan 22 

Minnesota 10 

Mississippi 16 

Missouri 30 

Nebraska 6 

Nevada 6 

New Hampshire 10 



New Jersey. 

New York. 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

South Carolina 

Tennessee t 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Arizona 

Dakota 

District of Columbia 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexico 

Utah 

Washington Territory. 
Wyoming 



36 



Grand Total 755 [ 313 257 99 11 



10 



23 «0 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 29 

The announcement of this total filled the friends of Grant 
with hope and raised a cheer which rang through the hall with 
the shouts which greeted the revelation of the new candidate's 
strength. The last act of this political drama was to come. 

The cheer for Grant, though loud and long continued, was no 
match fur the shout which went up for the coming man from 
Ohio. " No candidate has a majority," cried the loud-voiced 
clerk, and the President of the Convention announced the 
thirty-sixth ballot. Instantly there was a hush all over the 
vast buildiug. Instinctively it was known, perhaps felt would 
be a better word, that something conclusive was about to be 
done. The Wisconsin break for Garfield had warned manv of 
what was to come, aud the chairmen of many of the delegations, 
in a hurry to be on the winning side, clustered earnestly about 
the men from Ohio and eagerly inquired what the outcome was 
to be. 'But to all their inquiries Ohio had only one response to 
make. Her representatives wore not yet ready to break from 
Sherman. Then, with something of a flourish, knowing that 
important action was about to be taken, the clerk called the 
State of Alabama, and ever-faithful Alabama, through her gal- 
lant representative, George Turner, replied, as usual: "Alabama 
casts 16 votes for Grant, and 4 for Blaine." "Arkansas," 
called the clerk, and ex-Senator Dorsey answered as he had 
done on the thirty-five ballots already taken : "Arkansas casts 
her 12 votes for U. S. Grant." Then California was called, 
and there was a general stretching of necks to catch the 
response. Will the Blaine people break ? was now the ques- 
tion. No, not yet. The men of California stood firm, and for 
the thirty-sixth time their chairman cast the 12 votes of the 
State for James G. Blaine. Colorado also continued in the old 
way, and cast her 6 votes for Grant. Then there was a general 
Bigh of relief, for it seemed as though the Wisconsin break on 
the former ballot hud only been a temporary flurry. Those 
who for the moment thought in this way almost instantly had 
good reason to change their minds. " Connecticut," cried the 
clerk, and Connecticut answered : " One vote for Grant, and 11 



30 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

for James'A. Garfield." Delaware and Florida voted as usual. 
Then Georgia gave one more to the Garfield column. Illinois 
followed with 7 for Garfield, and then the stampede came. 
"Iowa," called the clerk, and clearly through the increasing 
buzz of excitement came the response: "Iowa has given her 22 
votes for James A. Garfield." This was the turning-point of 
the day, and the signal for ull the Blaine men to transfer their 
strength to the candidate from Ohio. If Iowa broke after 
remaining faithful through so long a fight, it would be small 
blame to others to leave the Senator from Maine. So argued 
every politician on the floor, and consternation came upon those 
who had stood by the banner of Grant. Only Conkling re- 
mained cool and unmoved. All the lesser leaders of the Grant 
forces clustered about him for advice and encouragement. For 
a time he succeeded in checking the panic by calmly assuring 
all those around him that the Blaine break would be Grant's 
gain, and that no nomination would be made in the bailot in 
progress. But still, and even while the Grant captain was 
calling up in h\< little arrnv to stand firm, the tide in favor of 
Garfield continued to sweep on. Kansas gave him 6 votes, 
Kentucky 3, and Louisiana 8. It was evident that the union 
of the opposition was complete, and then slowly came the call 
of the State of Maine, and Eugene Hale, white of face, but in 
a clear, sharp, penetrating voice, replied : "Maine casts her 14 
votes for James A. Garfield." This w 7 as practically the end of 
the long and eventful struggle. Blaine was out of the race, 
and in effect Sherman's withdrawal quickly followed. Mary- 
land gave 10 votes to swell the ever-increasing ocean of the 
Garfield men. Mr. Creswell, to the last true to Grant, ques- 
tioned the accuracy of the vote, and under the rule the roll was 
called and the men of Maryland placed squarely upon the 
record. Answering as their names were called, it was found 
that the announcement of the chairman was correct, and then 
the clerk called "Massachusetts." Slowly but distinctly the 
response came : " Massachusetts casts 4 votes for Grant, and 22 
for Garfield." 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 31 

From this point on there was no further doubt as to the 
result. It was plain that the new man from Ohio was to be the 
nominee. Michigan followed Massachusetts with 21 votes for 
him, and all the opposition votes from Minnesota, Mississippi, 
Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Jersey 
fell into line. The New York bolters joined in swelling the 
tide. Fifteen votes from North Carolina were cast in the same 
direction. Ohio was called, and, without hesitation, Mr. Butter- 
worth, the chairman, replied : " Ohio casts 43 votes for James 
A. Garfield." For the first time since the commencement of 
the great struggle the Buckeye State was united, and by this 
unity practically ended the contest. The roll-call went on, all 
the opposition votes going to the Ohio favorite. At last Wis- 
consin was reached, and, singularly enough, the vote of that 
State, the first of any consequence to break for him, made 
him the Presidential candidate of the Republican party. After 
the call of Wisconsin it was determined beyond question that 
he had votes sufficient to nominate him. The scene which fol- 
lowed was almost beyond description. For the fourth time 
since the commencement of its six-days' session the delegates 
and others on the floor of the Convention hall seemed to lose all 
control of themselves. Many of them cheered like madmen. 
Others stood upon their seats and waved their hats high above 
them. All the banners of all the States were clustered about 
that of Ohio. "Hurrah for Garfield!" was cried by a thousand 
throats. The galleries took up the shout, and later on the ten 
thousand people in the hall, led by the band, joined in singing 
the " Battle-cry of Freedom." Through all the excitement, 
vrhich continued fully fifteen minutes, the nominee sat quietly, 
ting the congratulations showered upon him. 

The work of nomination which remained was quickly done. 
Quiet had been restored. After the vote of Wisconsin was 
announced, the Territories were called, and then, amid a second 
great burst of applause, James A. Garfield, having received a 
majority of all the votes cast, was declared to be the Republican 
nominee for President of the United States. The ballot which 
nominated him was as follows: — 



32 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 



THIRTY-SIXTH BALLOT. 



STATEa 



Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

i onnecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

I llinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massac! usetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Curolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island 

Soul h Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

Arizonia 

Dakota 

District of Columbia... 

Idaho 

Montana 

Sew Mexico 

Utah 

Washington Territory. 
Wyoming 



Grand Total. 



8 | 10 
24 6 

1 



3 I. 



11 



1 

7 

29 

22 

6 

3 

8 

14 

10 

22 

21 

8 

9 

1 

6 

3 

10 

18 

20 

15 

43 

6 

21 

8 

8 
3 
10 
3 
9 
20 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
2 
I 2 
2 
2 



306 42 



3 I 



399 



Whole number of votes cast — 75° 

Necessary to a choice 379 



Grant 

Garfield . 
Blaine .. 



306 

399 

42 



Sherman 3 

Washbume 5 



GENERAL J. A. OAREtELB. 33 

The Chairman announced that Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, having, 
received a majority of the whole vote cast, was nominated for 
President of the United States, and asked : " Shall his nomi- 
nation be made unanimous ? " 

Mr. Conkling said : — 

Mr. Chairman : — James A. Garfield, of Ohio, having re- 
ceived a majority of all the votes cast, I rise to move that he be 
unanimously presented as the nominee of this Convention. The 
Chair, under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my feet I 
avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican 
party of the nation on the good-natured and well-tempered 
disposition which has distinguished this animated Convention, 
[Cries of " Louder " from the galleries.] I should like to speak 
louder, but having sat here under a cold wind I find myself 
unable to do so. I was about to say, Mr. Chairman, that I trust 
that the zeal, the fervor, and now the unanimity of the scenes 
of the Convention will be transplanted to the fields of the coun- 
try, and that all of us who have borne a part against each other 
here will be found with equal zeal bearing the banners and 
carrying the lances of the Republican party into the ranks of 
the enemy. [Applause.] 

Mr. Logan spoke as follows : — 

Gentlemen of toe Convention : — "We are to be congratu- 
lated upon having arrived at a conclusion in respect to present- 
ing a name of a candidate to be the standard-bearer of the 
Republican party for President of the United States in union 
and harmony with each other. Whatever may have trans- 
pired in this Convention that may have produced feelings of 
annoyance will be, I hope, considered as a matter of the past. 
I, with the friends of one of the grandest men on the face of the 
earth, stood here to fight a friendly battle in favor of his nomi- 
nation ; but this Convention has chosen another leader, and the 
men who stood by Grant will be seen in the front of the con- 
test for Mr. Garfield. [Cheers.] We will go forward in the 
contest, not with tied hands, not with scaled lips, not with bribed 
tongues, but to speak the truth in favor of the greatest party 
3 



34 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

that has ever been organized in this country, to maintain its 
principles, to uphold its power, to preserve its ascendancy ; and 
my judgment is that with the leader whom you have chosen 
victory will perch on our banners. [Cheers.] As one of the 
Republicans from Illinois, I second the nomination of James A. 
Garfield, and hope it will be made unanimous. [Cheers.] 

Mr. Beaver, of Pennsylvania, said : — 

The State of Pennsylvania having had the honor of first 
nominating, in this Convention, the gentleman who has been 
chosen as the standard-bearer of the Republican party in the 
approaching national contest, I rise to second the motion which 
has been made to make that nomination unanimous, and to 
assure this Convention and the people of the country that 
Pennsylvania is heartily in accord with the nomination [cheers]; 
that she gives her full concurrence to it, and that this country 
. i ■ rxpect from her the greatest majority that has been given 
for a Presidential candidate in many years. 

Mr. Hale, of Maine, said :-*- 

Mr. Chairman : -Standing hereto return our heartfelt thanks 
to the many men in this Convention who have aided us in the 
fight that we made for the Senator from Maine, and speaking 
for the Maine delegation here, as I know that I do, I say this 
most heartily : We have not got the man whom Ave hoped to 
nominate when we came here, but we have got a man in whom 
we have the greatest and most marked confidence. The nominee 
of this Convention is no new or untried man, and in that respeet 
he is no " dark horse." AVhen he came here representing his 
State in the front of his delegation every man knew him, 
because of his record ; and because of that and because of our 
faith in him, and because we were, in the emergency, glad to 
help make him the candidate of the Republican party for 
President of the United States — because, I say, of these things, 
I stand here to pledge the Maine forces in this Convention to 
earnest effort from now until the Ides of November to help 
carry him to the Presidential chair. [Cheers.] 

Mr. Pleasants, a colored delegate from Virginia, mounted his 
seat and said, that, while he could not promise the vote of 



GENERAL, J. A. GARFIELD. 35 

Virginia for the Republican candidates, that the Republicans 
of that State would do all that they could for him, and hoped 
(with the aid of the divisions in the Democratic ranks) to give 
the electoral vote of Virginia to Mr. Garfield. 

Mr. Campbell, of West Virginia, said he had just received a 
telegram from one of the principal centres of West Virginia, 
sending greetings to the Convention, and pledging the best efforts 
of the Republicans of that State for Mr. Garfield. 

Mr. Hicks, of Florida, said in substance as follows : — 
While the delegates of Florida had not succeeded in having 
•nominated the man for whom they were a unit, they had placed 
their Moses on the Mount of Vision, where, in the serene and 
cloudless atmosphere, he could enjoy his well-earned repose. 
They had, however, placed the mantle of commandership and 
the sword of civil power in the hands of one of the bravest, wisest, 
and most aggressive Joshuas in all the host of Israel. As 
Florida had heretofore given her electoral vote for the Republi- 
can nominee for the Presidency, so in this contest he promised 
to deliver the four electoral votes of that State to James A. 
Garfield. 

Mr. Norton, of Texas, an old gentleman with snowy locks 
hanging in masses on his shoulders, said in substance : — 

The Convention brought to his mind that great Convention of 
the Whig party when its glorious leader, Henry Clay, was 
defeated by Zachary Taylor, and the supporters of Clay then 
went to work in behalf of Taylor. So the friends of the great 
chieftain, General Grant, would be found in the coming contest 
doing battle for James A. Garfield. [Cheers.] He was proud 
of the nomination, and hoped that the country would, under 
Garfield's administration, enjoy peace, prosperity, and unity, 
and that the clouds which hang over the South would be 
scattered. 

Governor Foster, of Ohio, read to the Convention a dispatch 
which he had just received that showed how Mr. Garfield was 
esteemed by the House of Representatives. The dispatch was: — 



o6 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

"The House of Representatives has appointed a committee of five 
of its old members to congratulate James A. Garfield on his«norni- 
nation, and William 1). Kelley has been appointed chairman." 

Mr. Houck, of Tennessee, said that there could have been no 
nomination made more pleasing to the Republicans of his State 
than that of James A. Garfield. He predicted for him the 
same victory which that gentleman had predicted on many 
occasions on the floor of the House over the rebel brigadiers. 

Mr. Harrison, of Indiana, remarked upon his having been 
himself a defeated candidate for the nomination, having received 
one vote from a delegate from Pennsylvania, who had not stay- 
ing qualities enough [laughter], and he told the Ohio delegation 
that it might carry to its distinguished member the ungrudging 
support of the Republicans of Indiana. He bore him no 
malice at all [laughter] ; but he would defer his speech until 
the campaign was hot on every stump in Indiana, and wherever 
else his voice could help the Republican cause he hoped to be 
found. [Cheers.] 

General Garfield awaited the recess before leaving the Expo- 
sition Building. As soon a^ it became apparent that the motion 
for a recess would obtain, he, accompanied by Governor Foster 
and General Butterworth, moved rapidly through the crowd of 
delegates and passed out of the delegates' entrance. A carriage 
drawn by two gray horses awaited the party and they evidently 
were desirous of getting away with as little noise as possible, 
but in this laudable purpose they were mistaken. Before the 
Jehu could crack his whip the carriage was surrounded by 
people wildly anxious to congratulate the next President. A 
few of them succeeded in initiating him into that most arduous 
of the duties of his high office, and then the party drove rapidly 
to the private entrance of the Grand Pacific Hotel. The driver 
committed the mistake of driving across the front of the hotel, 
and the hundreds of people already awaiting him there surged 
through the halls to the other entrance, and were ready to 
receive him as soon as his foot touched the sidewalk. They 
would not be denied the tribute of hand-squeezing, and the 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 37 

General submitted to the inevitable with dignified resignation. 
Some hundreds accomplished their purpose before he reached 
the elevator. After he arrived in Governor Foster's room, the 
Ohio delegates and the Ohio men who were not delegates 
thronged the corridors, anxious and determined to present their 
respects. A few were admitted, but the General found an 
excuse for business in opening and reading several hundred 
telegrams, which had already poured in from every quarter of 
the country, from Oregon to the Gulf. He read them with 
unmoved face until one from a college chum, recalling college 
days, evoked a smile and comment, as he handed it to Governor 
Foster: "That revives pleasant recollections." The waiter soon 
afterward handed him one which caused his eyes to fill with 
tears. " The dear boys ! the dear boys !" he ejaculated twice. 
" Harry and Jim send in their congratulations," he said, with a 
voice that he could scarcely command as he handed it over to 
his faithful lieutenant. The dispatch was from his two youngest 
sons. To the few who were permitted to enter the room he was 
very chatty. He said that the break of the Blaine column 
toward him surprised no one more than himself. It was an 
entirely unexpected event and one that he was hardly able to 
realize even yet. "While they were discussing the manoeuvres 
that led up to the concentration of the anti-Grant forces, Messrs. 
Hale and Frye were admitted, and later still several prominent 
New Yorkers joined in the congratulations. The hall had mean- 
while filled up with delegates from the Western States, who 
professed as great satisfaction in the event as though their par- 
ticular favorite had been the winner in the race. As General 
Garfield and Governor Foster went to dinner they were accom- 
panied by a continuous salvo of cheers. 

The committee appointed to wait on General Garfield and 
notify him of the nomination found him at night at the Grand 
Pacific Hotel. "General Garfield," said Mr. Hoar, " the gen- 
tlemen present are appointed by the National Republican Con- 
vention, representatives of every State in the Union, who have 
been directed to convey to you the formal ceremonial notice of 



38 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

your nomination as the Republican candidate for the office of 
President of the United State". It is known to you that the 
Convention which has made this nomination assembled divided 
in opinion and in council in regard to the candidate. It may 
not be known to you with what unanimity of pleasure and of 
hopes the Convention has received the result which it has 
reached. You represent not only the distinctive principles and 
opinions of the Republican party, but you represent also its 
unity, and in the name of every State in the Union represented 
on the committee I convey to you the assurance of the cordial 
support of the Republican party of these States at the coming 
election." Garfield replied : — 

Mr. President and Gentlemen: — I assure you that the 

information you have officially given me brings the sense of 
very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the fact 
that I was a member of your body, a fact which could not have 
been so with propriety had T had the slightest expectation that 
my own name would be connected with the nomination for the 
office. I have felt with you great solicitude regarding the 
situation of our party during the struggle, but believing that 
you are correct in assuring me that substantial unity has been 
reached in the conclusion, it gives me gratification far greater 
than any personal pleasure your announcement can bring. I 
accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work of 
our party, as to the character of the campaign to be entered 
upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than I 
can properly do now. I thank you for the assurances of confi- 
dence and esteem and unity which you have presented me with, 
and shall hope that we may see our future as promising as are 
the indications of to-night. 

General Garfield was serenaded at the Grand Pacific Hotel, 
in the evening, by an immense and enthusiastic throng, but he 
declined to respond to the ovation further than to bow his 
thanks. During the evening his head-quarters were a scene 
of busy congratulations. Over six hundred telegrams were 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 39 

received from every point in the Union. Those from _Ohio 
leading off in number and enthusiasm. More than three 
hundred were received from that State alone, promising him a 
majority varying from thirty to fifty thousand next fall, and 
exhausting the vocabulary in expressing the State's pride over 
his nomination. Among the most notable dispatches received 
were the following : — 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, D. C, June 8. 
General James A. Garfield: — 

You will receive no heartier congratulations to-day than 
mine. This both for your own and your country's sake. 

R. B. Hayes. 

Washington, D. C, June 8. 
The Hon. James A. Garfield: — 

Accept my hearty congratulations. The country is to be 
congratulated as well as yourself. 

C. Schurz. 

Senator Blaine sent the following telegram to General Gar- 
field as soon as he received the announcement of Maine's vote 
on the final ballot : — - 

Washington, Tuesday — 1.45 P.M. 

Tlie Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago : — 

Maine's vote, this moment cast for you, goes with my hearty 
concurrence. I hope it will aid in securing your nomination 
and assuring victory to the Republican party. 

J. G. Blaine. 

General Garfield thus replied to this telegram : — 

Chicago, June 8. 

To Hon. J. G. Blaine, Washington, D. C. : — 
Accept my thanks for your glorious dispatch. 

J. A. Garfield. 



40 GENERAL. J. A. GARFIELD. 

The following dispatch explains itself: — 

St. Louis, Mo., June 8. 

The Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago: — 

The undersigned, to whom was confided the organization of 

the National Anti-Third Term Committee of One Hundred, 

appointed at St. Louis, May 6, rejoice that the duty assigned 

them disappeared with your nomination, which they heartily 

approve. Warmest congratulations to the statesman this day 

called to lead a reunited party to the fruition of its highest 

aims. 

H. H. Hitchcock. 

E. Pretorious, 

G. A. FlNKELBURG, 

L. Eaton, 

R. E. ROMBAUER. 

General Garfield: — 

I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination 
as President of the United States. You have saved the Repub- 
lican party and the country from a great peril, and assured the 
continued success of Republican principles. 

John Sherman. 

J. B. Bowman telegraphs from Washington, D. C. : "Accept 
my hearty congratulations. Kentucky will shout for you in 
November." 

Charles E. Fitch, editor of the Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat, 
telegraphs : "Glory to God in the highest. Peace and good-will 
to the Republican party." 

A dispatch signed by citizens of Ashtabula says : " Ashtabula 
sends her congratulations to her favorite Senator, the next 
President of the United States." 

Ex-Congressman 8. W. Kellogg, of Connecticut, sends " A 
thousand congratulations, hearty and sincere." 

Commissioner John I. Davenport, of New York : " Accept 
my warmest congratulations. Your nomination is equivalent 
to an election." 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 41 

Collector E. A. Merritt, of New York : " I congratulate you 
on your nomination. You will be elected President, and the 
country will rejoice." 

Ex-Congressman Danford, of Ohio : " I congratulate our next 
President." 

The Hon. Hugh N. Camp, of New York : " Ten thousand 
congratulations from one who knows you but slightly, but 
knows you to be a Christian and patriot. Count on New 
York." 

Murat Halstead, editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, to 
Governor Foster : " Tell Garfield I forgive him." 

Congressman J. A. Hubbell : " I congratulate you, and am 
ready to take my coat off." 

Ex-Congressman Horatio Bisbee, Jr.: "I congratulate the 
country and you on your nomination." 

Congressman Henry S. Neil : " Your Republican colleagues 
in Washington send hearty congratulations." 

Samuel Bell, of Philadelphia : " Pennsylvania greets Ohio, 
and congratulates you as the next President of the United 
States. The Keystone State will give you twenty-nine electoral 
votes in November." 

Assistant-Secretary of the Treasury J. K. Upton : " A thou- 
sand congratulations. Everybody here delighted." 

Congressman William D. Kelley : " Accept congratulations 
and pledge of earnest support." 

The Hon. E. D. Morgan, of New York : " Please accept my 
hearty congratulations. Our people are rejoicing at the result 
of the thirty-sixth ballot. I predicted it before the Convention 
met. Your nomination is received with the greatest satisfaction 
in this city. All are now confident of success." 

Governor William E. Smith, of Wisconsin: "Accept most 
hearty congratulations on your nomination, with assurances of 
the electoral vote of Wisconsin." 

Consul-General J. Q,. Smith, of Montreal : " God bless you." 



42 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

Governor Cheney, of Manchester, N. H. : " Rejoicing in this 
city over Garfield's nomination. One hundred guns being 
fired." 

Congressman Einstein : " 'Praise God from whom all blessings 
flow.' My warmest congratulations and heartiest support. My 
district, I promise, will report nobly for you." 

Ex-Congressman Sener, of Virginia, telegraphs from Chey- 
enne, Wy. : " A citizen of the oldest State sends warmest con- 
gratulations from the youngest Territory." 

Ex-Congressman L. Cass Carpenter telegraphs from Denver, 
Col. : " Will support your nomination with three electoral 
votes." 

The Hon. Cortlandt Parker, of New Jersey : " My sincere 
congratulations to the country and to you." 

Ex-Congressman James S. Negley, of Pittsburg, Pa. : Your 
nomination affords intense satisfaction to the Republicans of 
this city. Allegheny County will give you a splendid majority." 

E. B. Wright, Washington correspondent of the Chicago 
Tribune, telegraph.- : "Heartiest congratulations. The Demo- 
crats acknowledge that you will be the hardest to beat, and the 
Republicans are united in the belief that you have saved the 
party from destruction, and the country from grave peril." 

The Marquis De Chambrun telegraphs: "Accept my most 
sincere congratulations upon being promoted from the Presi- 
dency of our literary society to that of the United States." 

The scene in the House of Representatives at Washington, 
when the news of Garfield's nomination came, was entirely un- 
precedented in the history of that body. Members gathered 
in groups and discussed the nomination, which appeared to 
meet with almost universal approval from the Republicans, 
and which was conceded by the Democrats to be a strong 
one. The second call of Garfield's name was the signal for a 
burst of applause from the Republicans. The motion was finally 
carried, and accordingly the House, at 2.30, adjourned. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 43 

Cheers for Garfield were then given, while cries of " Speech 
from Hawley," and " Hawley for Vice-President," went up, 
but that gentleman did not respond. Mr. Robeson. — I move 
that Gen. Hawley takes the chair. Carried unanimously, amid 
loud cheers. When Hawley took the chair the House pre- 
sented a curious sight. Every chair was occupied, the seats of 
the absent members being filled by spectators, who, upon the 
adjournment, had crowded into the hall, while in the rear of the 
seats were groups of men evidently full of excitement. 

Mr. Hawley, on taking the chair, said : " I beg leave to say 
that we occupy the floor with the kind consent of our friends on 
the right, who will have their opportunity by and by. - ' [Laugh- 
ter ; cries of " Speech ! Speech !"] 

Mr. Hawley. — I have no speech to make. The nomination 
made at Chicago is its own speech for every Republican of this 
House, and our personal good-will goes with our old friend and 
associate, General Garfield. [Applause.] I have no doubt 
from what I have seen and heard that this event — this consum- 
mation — is in the very highest degree satisfactory to every 
Republican here, whatever may have been his personal prefer- 
ence. [Applauee.] We have been warmly divided in the 
past, we will be much more warmly united in the future. 
[Applause.] I think one result will be — I am supposing 
there are no Democrats here — to compel an excellent nomina- 
tion on the other side, so that the country we all love will 
be certain of a good President for the next four years, person- 
ally, whatever his political opinions may be. [Loud applause, 
in which the Democrats joined.] 

Mr. Robeson was then loudly called for, and that gentleman, 
responding, said : " As members of the American Congress -" 

A Democrat. — Both sides ? 

Mr. Robeson, continuing. — Both sides — I think we have a 
right to congratulate the whole country that a man whom we all 
know to be a man of character and capacity beyond impeach- 
ment has been nominated by one of the great political parties 
for the highest office in the gift of the people. [Applause]. 



44 gkn::ral j. a. gakpield. 

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I speak in acknowledgment on behalf 
of the House of Representatives that one of our number, con- 
spicuous before the people on account of his services on this 
floor, has been selected as the standard-bearer of the great 
political party to which I belong. That is a sentiment which 
affects neither the politics nor the feelings of anybody, and I 
ask everybody within the reach of my voice to join me in giving 
three cheers for the candidate selected from our body as the 
candidate of a great party. [The Republicans rose and gave 
the three cheers with a will, but the Democrats, though joining 
in the cheering, retained their seats.] I move, Mr. Chairman, 
that a committe be appointed, and 1 suggest as its chairman the 
oldest member of the House— Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania — 
to send bv telegraph our congratulations to our fellow-Congress- 
man on his nomination. [Applause.] Cries then went up for 
" Kelky," and Chairman Hawley stated that Mr. Kelley would 
have occupied the chair, but that he had not been present. 

Mr. Kelley.— I have been in that chair but once, though I 
have been here nineteen years, and then I felt so like a fool that 
I never got into it again. [Laughter.] I thank the gentleman 
from New Jersey ( Robeson) and his associates on this floor for 
having delegated to me the Chairmanship of the Committee to 
which has been confided so grateful a duty. I beg leave to 
inform the Chairman and the House that, taking advantage of 
circumstances, I slipped out when Garfield was 338 and sent the 
following telegram: "Accept congratulations and pledge of 
earnest support." [Applause.] I rejoice most heartily in this 
nomination. General Garfield is a man of rare force of char- 
acter, of wide attainments, of great simplicity, and a man who 
adheres as firmly as a true party man ever may to his personal 
convictions, and our friends on the other side, in the dejection 
which now overcomes them, while a bad nomination for them is 
possible, will find satisfaction in knowing that they know tho 
man to be one who will administer the government faithfully, 
fairly, and patriotically after we shall have inaugurated him. 
[Applause.] 



OENKKAL J. A. GARFIELD. 45 

The Chair appointed Kelley, Robeson, Browne, Martin (N. C), 
Page, Richardson (N. Y.), and Henderson (Ills.), as the com- 
mittee to send a congratulatory telegram to Garfield. 

Mr. Richardson was appointed at the suggestion of Van 
Voorhis, of New York, who was unwilling that the great State 
of New York should not be represented on the committee, and 
Henderson at the suggestion of Cannon, of Illinois, who thought 
that Illinois, "the third State — always Republican," — should be 
represented. 

The meeting then, after giving three more cheers far Garfield, 
adjourned. 

The following is the full text of the telegram immediately 
sent to General Garfield : — 

Washington, June 8, 1880. 

To General, T. A. Garfield, Chicago: — 

Under instruction of your Congresssional associates, assem- 
bled in the hall of the House of Represesentatives, General 
Hawlcy in the chair, we congratulate you on your nomination 
as the candidate of the great Republican party for the Presi- 
dency of the United {States, 

Wlliam D. Kelley, 
George M. Robeson, 
Thomas M. Browne, 
Joseph J. Martin, 
Horace F. Page, 
D. P. Richardson, 
Thomas J. Henderson. 
A large number of the Alumni of Williams College resident 
in New York sent the annexed congratulatory dispatch: — ■ 

Gen. James A. Garfield: — 

The Alumni of Williams College, residing in New York city, 

assembled this evening without regard to party, most heartily 

congratulate you and our Alma Mater on your nomination to 

the Presidency. 

Charles A. Davison, Chairman. 

Dudley Field, Jr., Secretary. 



) 



±0 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

It was also decided to have engrossed the following letter to 
Gen. Garfield, in addition to the telegram : — 

Gen. James A. Garfield : — 

Sir : — The graduates of "Williams College, assembled this 
evening upon the news of your nomination by the Chicago Con- 
vention, have already sent to you a telegram conveying their 
congratulations. Recognizing in this choice of one of the great 
parties an honor done to our college as well as to the man, they 
have desired to communicate more personally with you by means 
of this letter, uniting, as they do, in admiration of the qualities 
by which you have boen constantly distinguished, as well as of 
the services which you have rendered to the country. Our com- 
mon Alma Mater, speaking by her sons, gladly looks to you as 
not only at their head, but prospectively at the head of the 
nation. With all the good wishes we can send, we remain 
faithfully yours. 

Prof. Xewcombe, who was present at this meeting, and was a 
classmate of General Garfield, told a pleasant incident which 
occurred at the reuuion of the class f56) in 1876. Gen. Garfield, 
who was then a member of Congress, was made President of the 
class reunion exercises. At the dinner one of his classmates 
clapped him on the shoulder and said, jokingly : "Jim. if you 
behave yourself you'll get into the Senate in five years, and if 
you don't make a fool of yourself you'll be President one of 
these days." The carelessly-spoken prophecy seems likely to be 
fully verified. 

Among the expressions of satisfaction from various points and 
persons which soon found their way into the public papers, after 
General Garfield's nomination, are the following : — 

Ogdensburg, N. Y., June 8. — The nomination of General 
Garfield is received with intense satisfaction here. Both the 
Blaine and the Grant men recognize in the nominee a man who 
will harmonize every element of the party. Republicans con_ 
gratulate themselves on the happy termination of the contest. 
The struggle has been much too warm. The Democrats are 



GENERAL J. A. GAREIELD. 47 

correspondingly dejected. St. Lawrence County Republicans 
present their congratulations to the Republicans of the country, 
and promise to be heard from in November 

Watertown, X. Y., June 8. — There is great rejoicing here 
over Garfield's nomination. A salute and a bonfire will be 
followed by a ratification meeting this evening. Jefferson 
County will give a Republican majority of 3000. 

Watertown, K Y., June 8. — The Republicans fired a 
salute of 100 guns, and had a bonfire and a ratification meeting 
this evening in honor of General Garfield's nomination. 

Kingston, N. Y., June 8. — The nomination of General 
Garfield meets the hearty approval of every Republican in this 
city. All the leading citizens agree that it is the best and 
strongest nomination that could have been made. Cheer upon 
cheer went up from the crowds at the bulletin-boards when the 
news came, and to-night the enthusiasm is still unabated. The 
few survivors of the " Grant boom " are gracefully falling into 
line like men. 

Providence, R. L, June 8. — A salute of 100 guns was fired 
here this evening in honor of the nomination of General Garfield. 
In Bristol this afternoon a salute was fired in honor of the 
election of Senator Burnside, and the nomination of General 
Garfield. 

Baltimore, June 8. — The nomination of Garfield and 
Arthur gives entire satisfaction to the Republicans of this city. 
To-night a salute of 100 guns was fired in celebration of the 
result of the Chicago Convention. The American thinks the 
ticket is a very strong one. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, June 8. — Everywhere among Republi- 
cans the nomination of Garfield is received with great satisfac- 
tion. To-night a ratification meeting full of enthusiasm was 
held at the Lincoln Club quarters, and later a procession, with 
a band of music, visited the newspaper offices. The Commercial 
says : " The nomination of Garfield is a happy solution of the 
difficulty in which the Republican party was involved by the 
third-term candidacy." 



48 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

Burlington, N. J., June 8. — The streets of this city were 
enlivened to-night by a parade of the Young Men's Club, who 
had a band of music and transparencies, indorsing the nomina- 
tion at Chicago. A large and enthusiastic mass meeting was 
held in front of Belden's Hotel, and was addressed by the Hon. 
J. Howard Pugh in an eloquent and telling speech. 

Boston", June 8. — Dispatches from various points in New 
England report the satisfactory reception by Republicans of the 
results of the Chicago Convention. In some places salutes 
were fired and clubs have been organized. Dispatches from 
Augusta and Portland, Me., say that the nomination of Gar- 
field was a disappointment, but he was received cheerfully. 
At Lewiston, Me., a salute of thirty-eight guns was fired. 

Cleveland, O., June 8. — Dispatches from various points 
in Ohio show that Garfield's nomination is well received. At 
Toledo a salute was fired, and the national colors were every- 
where displayed. In this city flags were unfurled, steam whis- 
tles and fog-horns were blown, the tin-pan brigade paraded, 
cannons were fired, and Garfield badges sold rapidly on the 
streets. 

CAT8KILL, N. Y., June 8. — The nomination of General 
Garfield and Chester A. Arthur gives great satisfaction here. 
Guns are being fired, and a band of music is now parading the 
streets. There is great enthusiasm for the ticket. 

Corning, N. Y., June 8. — The most unbounded enthusiasm 
prevails in this vicinity over the nomination of Garfield and 
Arthur. Bonfires were built and a hundred guns have been 
fired to celebrate the event. An old-fashioned Republican vic- 
tory can be looked for in this district. 

Jamestown, N. Y., June 8. — The people are enthusiastic 
over the nomination of Garfield and Arthur. A procession, 
with music, marched to the residence of Governor Fenton. The 
Governor made a very happy congratulatory speech. 

Albany, June 8. — The Republicans of Albany fired 100 
guns in honor of the nomination of General Garfield. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 49 

Saratoga, N. Y., June 8. — -Immediately after the announce- 
ment of the nomination of Mr. Garfield, a national salute was 
fired here. 

Auburn, N. Y., June 8. — The nomination of Mr. Garfield 
waa received here with great rejoicing. A hundred guns were 
fired in honor of the event. 

Canandaigua, N. Y., June 8. — A salute was fired in honor 
of the nomination of Mr. Garfield. Great enthusiasm prevails. 

Hudson, N. Y., June 8. — The Republicans of this city 
fired a hundred guns in honor of the action of the Chicago Con- 
vention. 

Thurlow Weed said to a reporter : — 

" The Republican party is to be warmly congratulated upon 
the auspicious result of the protracted and exciting labors of 
its National Convention. The nomination of General Garfield 
by the friends of Senator Blaine and Secretary Sherman, at the 
suggestion, doubtless, of those distinguished statesmen, evinces 
a devotion to their party and principles in the highest degree 
creditable and gratifying. It has been evident for the last two 
or three days that a harmonious nomination could only be made 
by the consent of the distinguished gentlemen prominent in the 
canvass. The sacrifice of personal interests and personal friend- 
ships for the public welfare was made at a time and in a manner 
that proves that distinguished politicians can rise to the dignity 
of pure patriotism and real statesmanship. 

" General Garfield's nomination will not only unite but en- 
thuse the Republican party. All the elements of dissension 
will be quieted. There are no antagonisms to be soothed, no 
prejudices to be conciliated, and no wounds to heal. The partv, 
after months of dissensions and rivalries, will now enter the 
canvass with a new name inscribed upon its banner and refreshed 
and invigorated. The nomination of General Garfield insures 
success in our own State. And that nomination, every way 
acceptable, has another aspect virtually important to the repub- 
lican form of government. It settles, now and forever, a ques- 



50 OKNERAL J. A. GARFIEL,1>. 

tion which, until now, was never seriously agitated. General 
Grant is the only one of the Presidents who has been pressed 
upon the people for a re-election after having served two terms. 
An issue has now been squarely made and has been forever 
settled. This victory is worth all it has cost." 

"Mr. "Weed, do you think that General Grant's friends, who 
held out for him to the last, will come over and work for Gene- 
ral Garfield as they would have worked for General Grant had 
he been nominated ?" 

"I think that the Grant men will undoubtedly come over and 
cordially support General Garfield. Indeed, I think General 
Garfield is the best possible nominee. Had either Blaine, 
Gram, or Sherman been nominated, after such trouble as they 
bad at the Convention, there would have been such strong 
opposition from the friends of the other two, that, in all proba- 
bility, the Republican party would have been defeated. The 
party needed to unite upon some man in the background, who 
had not been the object of bitter political wrangling, and this 
union that has been made will, I think, bring the party together 
solidly. I do not think we could have a stronger candidate, 
therefore, than General Garfield, and I believe he will be elected. 
If Grant had been kept well informed during the canvass he 
would hav( seen that it was impossible for him to be elected, 
considering the feeling against the third-term principle. No 
man has any more reason to feel gratified over the result of the 
Convention than General Grant, because it has saved him from 
the mortification of defeat. There are a great many Republi- 
cans who would have worked against him as the nominee of the 
party. The Germans would have gone en masse against Grant." 

" What effect do you think this nomination will have upon 
the Democratic party?" 

" I think it will stimulate them to make the best nomination 
they can. It will seriously damage Tilden's prospects, for the 
party cannot afford to run him against Garfield, though he 
might have beaten Grant. Indeed, Tilden's only hope was 
based upon the possibility of entering the lists against Grant" 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 51 

Mr. Weed then referred to a number of the possible nominees 
of the Democratic party, but expressed it as his opinion that 
there was not one among them who could beat General Garfield. 

George William Curtis expressed himself as follows : — 

"The nomination of General Garfield I regard as a most 
excellent choice. There is no doubt that he will be the next 
President of the United States. The Democrats have desired 
the nomination of Grant. They have hoped for it, they have 
prayed for it. In avoiding the selection of Grant we have had 
a narrow escape from the complete disruption of the Republican 
party. General Garfield, although a practical politician, has 
always kept in view the better aims of the party to which he 
belongs. He will bring out its entire strength at the polls. 

" I do not see that there is anv man whom the Democrats can 
name who can seriously compete with Garfield. He is a very 
sagacious, self-restraining, high-minded public man, and so far 
as I know, his record will bear the closest inspection. No nomi- 
nation could have been made which would have more certainly 
united the party. His attitude in the Convention fairly illus- 
trates the character of the man. He is very popular. In the 
overthrow of the third-term movement the country has avoided 
a great danger, and the Republican party a great shame. Gar- 
field is an able and intelligent defender of the soundest financial 
policy, and there is nothing of the demagogue about him. A 
nomination so dignified, admirable, and satisfactory cannot fail 
to unite the party and be ratified by the country at the polls." 

Ex-Governor Morgan, of New York, said, concerning General 
Garfield's nomination :-- 

" I think it is an excellent nomination, and one of the best 
that could have been made. My acquaintance with Garfield 
began nearly twenty years ago, when I was Governor and he 
was an officer in the Union army. He was an excellent officer 
and was well liked by the soldiers. Then when I was in the 
Senate, he was in the House, and at that time, as now, an 
acknowledged leader. He is a man who, outside of his marked 
ability, is of high character and the strictest integrity. Ho 



52 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

never got mixed up in any of the political scandals that used to 
occur now and then at Washington, and, in fact, I never heard 
a charge of any sort made against him. As to his popularity, 
that may be seen in his election to the Senate. For these 
reasons, and one other, I say it is an excellent nomination. 
The other reason is, that all the Republicans of the United 
States can unite on him. We can all unite on him. I consider 
it a very strong nomination, indeed, and should say that we 
have with him a better prospect of success than we had any 
reason to anticipate. 

" I was not altogether surprised at the result of the Conven- 
tion. The choice lay, of course, between the ex- President and 
a dark horse, and prior to the ballot I expressed my belief that 
the dark horse would be Garfield. I am thoroughly pleased 
with the nomination, and believe all good Republicans will be." 
Benjamin H. Bristow, ex-Secretary of the Treasury, said to a 
reporter : — 

"I think the nomination of General Garfield is very for- 
tunate. Wo might have fared much worse. He comes from 
one of the strongest Republican regions in the country — old 
Giddings's district in Ohio — and as it happens that Ohio is one 
of the most important States this time, I think it is very 
fortunate, because his nomination will secure a large Repub- 
lican vote there. That was demonstrated when he was elected 
to the Senate this year. He now has his option, whether to 
take six years in the Senate or four years in the White House. 
I believe this will be the first time that any Senator or Senator- 
elect has been elected President." 

" You seem confident of his success, Mr. Bristow." 
" I feel so. He is a strong man. He has thoroughly sound 
views on the currency question, and that's something. He is a 
man who has come up from the people, working his way up by 
his own energy and pluck and ability. He is one of the best 
speakers the Republican party has, and he has a perfectly clear 
record. I think he will make a strong President, and will give 
us a pure, honest administration. And I wish to say that out- 



GENERAL J. A. GARKIELD. 



side of his popularity as a statesman and a speaker he made 
his mark during the war. I knew him as a soldier in the 
Army of the Cumberland. He was one of the best officers we 
had, and was on intimate terms with General G. H. Thomas. 
He was with him as chief of staff at the battle of Chickamauga, 
and Thomas spoke of him then as one of the great men of the 
nation. There is no other man as popular with the Army of the 
Cumberland since Thomas's death, and General Thomas, if he 
were living, would take peculiar pleasure in his nomination." 

General Henry L. Burnett, one of the prominent members 
and officers of the Sherman Club, New York, when interviewed 
by a reporter, replied that he was well pleased with the nomi- 
nation of General Garfield : — 

" Our first choice," he added, " was Mr. Sherman, but outside 
of him I think no better nomination could be made. I think 
Garfield will run wonderfully well, and create unbounded 
enthusiasm. Both as a soldier and as a politician he has a 
clean and noble record, and commands a great popularity. He 
is a man of large sympathies. He was an anti-slavery man on 
principle, and has always espoused the cause of the poor. He 
gives his thoughts to all people who suffer, and to all people 
who live. Then his social and domestic relations are delightful, 
and I don't suppose that any man better fitted in many respects 
to fill the Presidential chair could have been found." 

"Were you intimate with him, General?" 

" Intimate? oh, yes. I have known General Garfield, I may 
say intimately, since I was thirteen years of age. He was then 
at school at a place called Chester, in Geauga County, Ohio, 
and the story in the school in regard to him was that he was a 
poor boy who had worked as a farm-hand and on the canal to 
get money enough to come there to school. He did not board 
at the institution, but in a small room outside, and saved a little 
in this way. I am not certain, but I believe he rang the bell a 
part of the time to pay for his tuition. He was then a boy of 
eighteen, of large stature, and with a raw, undeveloped appear- 
ance about him." 



54 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

" Was his ability as a speaker noticeable then ? " 

" Well, we used to hear him sometimes at the meetings of the 
debating societies. He impressed one with his earnestness, that 
was all. Men of large build and mould of the type of Garfield 
develop slowly, but he had much capacity, and it was known 
that he stood first in his clafses. He was a moral, steady, 
studious young man, and cherished strong religious sentiments. 
As I said before, I believe General Garfield is the very best run- 
ning man that could have been nominated. He has fewer 
enemies than any other man named at Chicago, and I have no 
doubt all Republicans will easily unite on him." 

The editor of the Albany Evening Journal says that one of 
the bishops of the Episcopal Church in the State of New York 
is a Democrat, strange as it may appear. When he heard that 
General. Garfield was nominated he took occasion to say that 
he knew him and admired him as one of the best and purest 
men in the republic. " And," said he, " I congratulate you 
upon the wisdom of the Convention. Whatever others may 
do, you may be sure that at least one Democrat will vote for 
him." 

Representative Caswell, of the second district of Wisconsin, 
has sent a letter to a delegate from that State to the Chicago 
Convention, in which he say.-: " I want to congratulate you and 
the Wisconsin delegates on the splendid strike you made in 
leading the break in the Convention for Garfield. It was the 
most happy solution of a difficult problem I ever saw. Garfield 
is one of the best men God ever made, and he grows better 
every day. He is able, warm-hearted, and honest. He has no 
idea of aristocracy, is nearer the people than any man we have 
given such prominence. The House of Representatives was 
perfectly wild with joy at the receipt of the news. No one \^as 
sorry. Even the Democrats acknowledged his fitness." 

Ex-Minister Elihu B. Waskburne expresses himself entirely 
satisfied with Garfield, with whom he served in Congress from 
1863 to 1869, and whom he considers the strongest statesman 
in this country. " I wanted Grant nominated," the Chicago 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 55 

Journal credits him with saying : " but next to him General 
Garfield would have been my choice." 

In his speech at the ratification meeting at Malone, N. Y., on 
Tuesday evening, Vice-President Wheeler said : " For the last 
thirty years much of my time has been spent in the public ser- 
vice. In that period I have come more or less in contact with the 
leading men of the country. For the last twelve years I have 
known Mr. Garfield intimately. For four years we daily sat to- 
gether upon the Committee of Appropriations of the House of 
Representatives. And thus qualified to speak intelligently, I 
say that in all the characteristics of which I have just spoken 
Mr. Garfield is the peer of any man now in public life. No 
man, certainly in the later days of the republic, has had more 
thorough training for its highest office, than Mr. Garfield. With 
prior service in the Legislature of Ohio, he has now been for 
eighteen continuous years a member of the National House of 
Representatives, from which, on the 4th of March next, he 
would — having been elected by the unanimous vote of the 
Republicans of the Legislature of his State — have gone to the 
United States Senate had not the people called him to the higher 
position. And in that position, I here make the confident pre- 
diction, he will be installed on the fourth day of March next." 

General Garfield took his departure from Chicago, with a few 
friends, at nine o'clock the next morning after his nomination, 
via the Lake Shore road, for his home near Cleveland, Ohio. 
He was escorted to the train by Nevan's band and a company of 
admirers. All along his way he was received a\ i 1 1 l marked and 
manifest tokens of respect and admiration. Crowds, with flags, 
cannon, and bands of music, greeted him atLaport* , South Bend, 
Elkhart, Ligonier, Kendallville, Butler, Edgerton, Byron, Wau- 
seon, and Starrton, and in response to the cheers and greetings 
Governor Foster made brief remarks at all the above places, 
General Garfield appearing on the rear platform and bowing to 
the people. On reaching Toledo a salute was fned about half a 
mile from the depot, where General Garfield's car was switched 
off from the train. About 2000 persons were on the ground, n 



56 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

and a committee of Republicans immediately surrounded the car 
to congratulate General Garfield. Governor Foster made a 
speech, congratulating the Ohioans upon the nomination, and 
General Garfield expressed his thanks for the reception. At 
Clevland he met with a grand reception. At noon he left for 
Hiram, where, on his arrival, he spoke as follows: — 

Fellow-citizens, Neighbors and Friends of Many 
Years : — It always has given me pleasure to come here and look 
upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and new 
friends. It has brought back a large share of that richness that 
belongs to those things out of which come the joys of life. 
While I have been sitting here this afternoon watching your 
faces and listening to the very interesting address which. has just 
D delivered, it has occurred to me that the best thing you 
have that all men envy — I mean all men who have reached the 
meridian of life — is perhaps the thiug that you care for less, and 
that is your leisure. The leisure you have to think, the leisure 
you have to be let alone, the leisure you have to throw the 
plummet with your hands and sound the depths and find what 
is below, the leisure you have to work about the towers of your- 

. s and find how strong they arc, ur how weak they are, and 
determine what needs building up, and determine how to shape 
them, that you may be made the final being that you are to be. 
Oh ! these hours of building ! If the superior beings of the 
universe would look down upon the world to find the most 
interesting object, it would be the unfinished unformed character 
ofvoung men, of young women. Those behind me have prob- 
ably iu the main settled such questions. Those who have passed 
into middle manhood and womanhood are about what they shall 
always be, and there is little left of interest or curiosity as to 
our development, but to your young unformed nature no man 
knows the possibilities that lay treasured up in your hearts and 
intellects, and while you are working up those possibilities with 
that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all classes of 
men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your 
leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, 



GENERAL J. A. GABFIELD. 57 

as your means, out of which you can demand all the possible 
treasures that God laid down when He formed your nature and 
unveiled and developed that possibility of your future. This 
place is loo full of memories for me to trust myself to speak 
upon, and I will not ; but I draw again to-day, as I have for a 
quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection from the 
people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the per- 
mission to see you and meet you and greet you as I have done 
to-day." 

On the following day the trains that arrived at Hiram were 
crowded to overflowing with people, and the enthusiasm for 
General Garfield completely overshadowed the interest in auy 
of the proceedings where he was not the central figure. The 
Presidential candidate received in the morning a number of 
congratulatory and business telegrams and letters, some of the 
more important of which he answered. He did not attend the 
early forenoon society gathering, but at half-past ten o'clock, 
with Dr. J. P. Robeson, Captain C. E. Henry, President B. A. 
Hinsdale, of Hiram College, and Mr. William Robeson, — all 
old friends, — he entered the Reunion Hall. There were loud 
cheers as the General assumed Lis place on the platform. Prayer 
was off nd by the It v. J. Knight, of Wilmington, Ohio, and 
President Hinsdale arose and introduced General Garfield as 
Chairman, with explanatory remarks as to why it had been 
arranged to have the reunion. The preparations, Mr. Hinsdale 
-aid, were made before the nomination of General Garfield, and 
he had accepted an invitation to preside over the reunion meet- 
ing two months ago. On taking the chair General Garfield was 
greeted with loud applause. He said : " Mr. President and 
fellow-citizens, I have been so many years accustomed to visit 
you that it would be entirely unbecoming in me to be the cause 
of disorder and disturbance. I am here, first, because I promised 
to be here, and second, because I greatly desire to be here, and 
I will not interfere with the course of your proposed programme. 
Certainly not at this time, but will begin immediately by intro- 
ducing to you the gentleman who was to deliver the regular 



58 GENERAL. J. A. GARFIELD. 

address of the reunion, the Rev. J. M. Atwater, once a student 
in this place, and still later the President of the college, and 
now a distinguished minister." 

GENERAL GARFIELD'S ADDRESS. 

The address of Mr. Atwater related to college matters and 
was well received. At the close General Garfield made a brief 
speech complimenting the previous addresses and referring to 
the past history of the college. The Rev. A. S. Hayden then 
spoke, after which General Garfield delivered the following 
address : " Ladies and gentlemen, there are two chapters in the 
history of this institution. You have heard the one relating to 
the founders. They were all pioneers of this Western Reserve, 
or nearly all. They were all men of knowledge and great force 
of character. Nearly all were not men of means, but they 
planned this little institution. In 1850 it was a cornfield, with 
a solid, plain brick building in the centre of it, and that was 
all. Almost all the rest has been the work of the institution 
itself. That is the second chapter, started without a dollar of 
endowment, without a powerful friend anywhere, but with a 
corps of teachers who were told to go on the ground and see 
what they could make out of it. They had to find their own 
pay out of the little tuition that they could receive. They 
invited students of their own spirit to come here on the ground 
and find out what they could make out of it, and the response 
has been that many have come; and the chief part of the 
responses I see in the faces around and before me to-day. It was 
a simple question of sinking or swimming for them. I know 
that we are all inclined to be a little lavish over our own affairs. 
We have, perhaps, a right to be so. But I do not know of any 
institution that has accomplished more with so little means as 
ha3 this school on Hiram Hill. [Applause.] I know of no 
place where the doctrine of self-help has a fuller development — 
by necessity as well as finally by choice — than here on this hill. 
The doctrine of self-help and of force have the chief place 
among the men and women around here. As I said a great 
many years ago about that, the act of Hiram College was to 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 59 

throw its young men and women overboard and let them try it 
for themselves. [Applause]. And those men able to get ashore 
got ashore, and I think we have few cases of drowning any- 
where. [Applause.] Now I look over these faces and I mark 
the several geological changes remarked by Mr. Atwater so 
well in his address. But in the few cases of change in the geo- 
logical faces there are, I think, no fossils. I think no fossils. 
[Laughter.] Some are dead, and glorified in our memories. 
But those who are not are alive — I think, all of them. 
[Laughter.] 

" The teachers and the students of this school built it up in 
every sense. They made the cornfield into Hiram Campus. 
Those pine groves you see across the road, they planted. I well 
remember the day when they turned out into the woods to find 
beautiful maples and brought them in ; when they raised a little 
purse to purchase evergreens ; when each young man fur him- 
self planted one tree, and perhaps a second for some young lady 
(if he was in lovej, on the campus, and then named them alter 
himself. There are several here to-day who rememb-.r Bolen. 
Bolen planted there a tree and Bolen has planted a tree that 
has a lustre. Bolen was shut through the heart at "Winchester. 
There are many of you here that can go and find the tree that 
you named after yourself. They are great 'strong trees to-day, 
and your name, like your trees, are, I hope, growing still. I 
believe outside of or beyond the physical features of the place, 
that there was a stronger pressure of work to the square inch in 
the boilers that run this establishment than any other that I 
know of, and, as has been so well said, that has told all the 
while with these young men and women. The struggle came 
whenever the uncouth and untutored farmer-boys came here to 
try themselves and find what kind of people they were. They 
came here to go on a voyage of discovery. Your discovery was 
yourselves. In many cases I hope that the discovery was a 
fortune, and the friendships then formed out of that, I believe, 
have bound this group of people longer and further than most 
any other I have known in life. They are scattered all over the 



60 GENEKAL J. A. GAKFIELD. 

United States, in every field of activity, and if I had time to 
name them the sun would go down before 1 had finished." 
[Applause.] 

There were other speeches, and early in the evening General 
Garfield, amid loud cheers, bid adieu to Hiram and drove to 
his home in Mentor, where he was accordc d a rousing reception 
by the farmers. The next day General Garfield was tendered a 
reception at Painesville. On this occasion he delivered the 
following address : — 

Fellowh ltizens \m> >. ik ;iibors of Lake County: — lam 
exceedingly glad to know that you care enough to come out on 
a hot day like this in the midst of your busy work to congratu- 
late me. I know it comes from the hearts of as noble a people 
as lives on the earth. [Cheers.] In my somewhat long public 
services there never has been a time, in however great difficul- 
ti' - I may have been placed, that I could not feel the strength 
that came from resting back upon the people of the Nineteenth 
district. To know that tiny were behind me with their intelli- 
gence, their critical judgment, their confidence and their support, 
was to make me strong in everything I undertook that was right. 
I have always felt your sharp, severe, and just criticism and my 
worthy, noble, supporting friends always did what they believed 
was right. I know you have come here to-day not altogether, 
indeed not merely, for my sake, but for the sake of the relations 
I am placed in to the larger constituency of the people of the 
United States. It is not becoming in me to speak, nor shall I 
speak, one word touching politics. I know you are here to-day 
without regard to politics. I know you are all here as my 
neighbors and my friends, and as such I greet you and thank 
you for this candid and gracious welcome. [Cheers.] Thus far 
in my life I have sought to do what I could according to my 
light. More than that I could never hope to do. All of that 
I shall try to do, and if I can continue to have the good opinion 
of my neighbors of this district it will be one of my greatest 
satisfactions. I thank you again, fellow-citizens, for this cordial 
and generous welcome. [Applause and cheers.] 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 61 

GENERAL GARFIELD AND THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 

THE CHARGES AGAINST HIM EFFECTUALLY EXPLODED. 

While it is now generally conceded that what is called 
political " mud-throwing " has ceased to really allect the for- 
tunes either of parties or individuals, it is equally true that in 
no period of the political life of this country has the appetite 
for scandal been keener or its exercise less restrained. Hardly 
had the Chicago Convention nominated General Tames A. Gar- 
field fnr President of the United States before the opposition 
press commenced to charge him with official corruption and 
belabor him with vituperative epithet?. The most seri:>us 
of these charges has reference to General Garfield's alleged 
connection with the Credit Mobilier case. And though a 
Congressional committee, some years ago, after a most rigid 
investigation, failed to find that General Garfield was guilty 
of any impropriety or even indelicacy in his transactions with 
Mr. Oakes Ames, the then manipulator of that corporation ; 
though it was clearly shown that out of an unimportant business 
transaction, the loan of a trifling sum of money as a matter of 
personal accommodation, and out of an offer never accepted, 
arose an enormous fabric of accusation and suspicion ; though 
General Garfield's personal honor was thoroughly vindicated 
by that investigation, — yet in the face of these facts the scandal 
is revived simply to enable his opponents to bedaub his fair 
name with " political mud," now that he is a candidate for the 
chief office in the gift of the people. 

THE CREDIT MOBILIER COMPANY. 

In considering so much of the history of the Credit Mobilier 
Company as has any relation to General Garfield, to render the 
matter intelligible it will be necessary to briefly state the 
offenses which that corporation committed, as found by the 
committees of the House of Representatives. The Credit 
Mobilier Company was a corporation organized under the 
laws of the State of Pennsylvania, and authorized by its charter 



"62 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

to purchase and sell various kinds of securities and to make 
advances of money and credit to railroad and other improve- 
ment companies. The class of business described in its charter 
was such as, if honestly conducted, the most upright citizen 
may properly engage in. On the sixteenth of August, 1867, 
Oakes Auks made a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad 
Company to build six hundred and sixty-seven miles of road, 
from the one-hundredth meridian westward, for an amount 
aggregating $47,925,000 in cash, or in the securities of the 
company. On the fifteenth of October, 18G7, a triple contract 
was marie between Mr. Ames of the first part, seven person3 as 
trustees of the second part, and the Credit Mobilier Company 
of the third part, by the terms of which the Credit Mobilier 
Company was to advance money to build the road, and to 
receive thereon seven per cent, interest and two and one-half 
per cent, commission ; the seven trustees were to execute the 
Ames contract, and the profits were to be divided among them 
and such other stockholders of the Credit Mobilier Company as 
should deliv r to them an irrevocable proxy to vote the stock 
of the Union Pacific held by them. The principal stockholders 
of the Credit Mobilier Company were also holders of a majority 
of the stock of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the face of this 
agreement the part to be performed by the Cn dit Mobilier as a 
corporation was simple and unobjectionable, being simply to 
advance money to the contractors and to receive therefor about 
ten per cent, as interest and commissions. But the facts were 
that a ring inside the Credit Mobilier obtained the control both 
of that corporation and of the profits of the Ames contract. 
The day after the triple contract was signed, by a private 
agreement made in writing the seven trustees pledged them- 
selves to each other so to vote all the Pacific Railroad stock 
which they held in their own right or by proxy as to keep in 
power all the members of the then existing board of directors 
of the railroad company not appointed by the President of the 
United States. By this agreement a majority of the directors 
were within the power of the seven trustees. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 63 

The result was that the Ames contract and the triple agree- 
ment amounted, in fact, to a contract made by seven leading 
stockholders of the Pacific Railroad with themselves, so that 
the men who fixed the price at which the road would be built 
were the same men who would receive the profits of the con- 
tract. Thus the guardians of a great public trust were enabled 
to contract with themselves at an exorbitant price, which 
virtually brought into their possession as private individuals 
almost all the property of the railroad company. The six 
hundred and sixty-seven miles covered by the contract included 
one hundred and thirty-eight miles already completed, the 
profits on which inured to the benefit of the contractors. Before 
the connection with the Ames contract the Credit Mobilier 
Company had already been engaged in several non-remune- 
rative enterprises, and its stock was below par. The triple 
contract of October, 1867, gave it at once considerable addi- 
tional value. It should be borne in mind, however, that the 
relations of the Credit Mobilier Company to the seven trustees, 
to the Oakes Ames contract, and to the Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany were known to but few persons, and they kept them secret 
until long afterwards. Nothing was known of it to the general 
public until the facts were brought out in the investigations. 

In view of the facts above stated, it is evident that a pur- 
chaser of such shares of Credit Mobilier stock as were brought 
under the operation of the triple contract would be a sharer of 
the profits derived by that arrangement from the assets of the 
Pacific Railroad, a large part of which consisted of bonds and 
lands granted to the road by the United States. The holding of 
such stock by a member of Congress would depend for its moral 
qualities wholly upon the fact whether he did or did not know 
of the arrangement out of which the profits would come. If 
he knew of the fraudulent arrangement by which the lands and 
bonds of the United States delivered to the Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company for the purpose of constructing its road were to 
be paid out at enormously extravagant rates, and the proceeds 
to be paid out as dividends to a ring of stockholders made the 



64 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

Credit Mobilier Company, he could not with any propriety hold 
such stock, or agree to hold it or any of its proceeds. If it was 
morally wrong to purchase it, it was morally wrong to hesitate 
whether to purchase it or not. 

THE TESTIMONY OF GENERAL GARFIELD. 

Putting the case oil the highest ethical ground, and applying 
this rule in all its severity in judging of General Garfield's rela- 
i.on to the subject, the evidence before the Congressional Com- 
mittee goes clearly to prove that he never purchased or agreed 
to purchase any of the stock; that, though an offer was made, 
which he had some time under advisement, to sell to him $1000 
worth of the stock, he did not then know, nor had he the means 
of knowing, the real conditions with which the stock was con- 
nected, or the methods by which its profits were to be made ; 
that his te.-timony before the committee is a statement of the 
facts as he has always understood them, and that neither before 
the committee nor elsewhere has there been on his part any pre- 
varication or evasion on the subject. In his sworn testimony, as 
given before the House committee, January 14, 1873, General 
Garfield says : " The first I ever heard of the Credit Mobilier 
was some time in 1866 or 18G7 — I cannot fix the date — when 
George Francis Train called on me and said he was organizing 
a company to be known as the Credit Mobilier of America, to 
be formed on the model of the Credit Mobilier of France ; that 
the objeet of the company was to purchase lands and build 
houses along the line of the Pacific Kailroad at points where 
cities and villages were likely to spring up ; that he had no 
doubt that money thus invested would double or treble itself 
each year ; that subscriptions were limited to $1000 each, and 
he wished me to subscribe. He showed me a long list of sub- 
scribers, among them Mr. Oakes Ames, to whom he referred me 
for further information concerning the enterprise. I answered 
that I had not the money to spare, and if I had I would not 
subscribe without knowing more about the proposed organiza- 
tion. Mr. Train left me, saying, he would hold a place open for 
me, and hoped I would conclude to subscribe. The same day I 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 65 

asked Mr. Ames what he thought of the enterprise. He ex- 
pressed the opinion that the investment would be safe and profit- 
able. I heard nothing further on the subject for a year or 
more, aud it was almost forgotten, when some time, I should say 
during the long session of 1868, Mr. Ames spoke of it again, 
said the company had organized, was doing well, and, he 
thought, would soon pay large dividends. He said that some of 
the stock was left, or was to be left, in his hands to sell, and I 
could take the amount which Mr. Train had offered me by pay- 
ing the $1000 and accrued interest. He said if I was not able 
to pay for it he would hold it for me until I could pay, or until 
some of the dividends were payable. I told him I would con- 
sider the matter, but would 'not agree to take any stock until I 
knew, from an examination of the charter and the conditions of 
the subscription, the extent to which I would become pecuniarily 
liable. He said he was not sure, but thought that a stockholder 
would ouly be liable for the par value of his stock ; that he had 
not the stock and papers with him, but would have them after 
awhile. From the case as presented I should probably have 
taken the stock if I had been satisfied in regard to the extent 
of pecuniary liability. Thus the matter rested, I think, until the 
following year. During that interval I understood that there 
were dividends due amounting to nearly three times the par 
value of the stock. But in the meantime I had heard that the 
company was involved in some controversy with the Pacific Rail- 
road and that Mr. Ames's right to sell the stock was denied. 
When I next saw Mr. Ames I told him I had concluded not to 
take the stock. There the matter ended, so far as I was con- 
cerned, and I had no further knowledge of the company's opera- 
tions until the subject began to be discussed in the newspapers 
last fall (1872). Nothing was ever said to me by either Mr. 
Train or Mr. Ames to indicate or imply that the Credit Mobilier 
was or could be in any way connected with the legislation of 
Congress for the Pacific Railroad or any other purpose. Mr. 
Ames never gave nor offered to give me any stock or other val- 
uable thing as a gift. I once asked and obtained from him, and 
5 



66 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

afterward repaid to him, a loan of $300 ; that amount is the 
only valuable thing I ever received from or delivered to him. I 
never owned, received, or agreed to receive any stock of the 
Credit Mobilier or of the Union Pacific Railroad, nor any divi- 
dends or profits arising from either of them." 

THE REM. CHARACTER DEVELOPED. 

From the witnesses in the case it seems that it was not until the 
winter of 1869-70 that General Garfield received an intimation 
of the real nature of the connection between the Credit Mobilier 
and the Pacific Railroad Company. In the course of a private 
conversation with the Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, of this State, 
finding that he was familiar with the enterprise, General Gar- 
field told him of the offer made him. Judge Black then ex- 
pressed the opinion that the managers of the Credit Mobilier 
were attempting to defraud the Pacific Railroad Company, and 
informed him that Mr. Ames was pretending to have sold stock 
to members of Congress for the purpose of influencing their 
action in any legislation that might arise on the subject. Gene- 
ral Garfield's action at that time is best explained in the follow- 
ing letter from Judge Black to the Hon. James G. Blaine, then 
Speakt r of the House, which of itself should be a thorough vin- 
dication, if any was needed, of General Garfield : — 

LETTER OP JUDGE BLACK. 

Philadelphia, February 15, 1873. 

My Dear Sir : — From the beginning of {he investigation con- 
cerning Mr. Ames's use of the Credit Mobilier, I believed that Gene- 
ral Garfield ivas free from all guilty connection with that busiyiess. 
Tiiis opinion was founded itot merely on my confidence in his 
integrity, but on some knowledge of his case. I may have told 
you all about it in conversation, but I desire now to repeat it by 
way of reminder. 

I assert unhesitatingly that, whatever General Garfield may 
have done or forborne to do, he acted in profound ignorance of 
the nature and character of the thing which Mr. Ames 
was proposing to sell. He had not the slightest suspicion that 
he was to be taken into a ring organized for the purpose of de- 



GENERAL J. A. GAKFIELD. 67 

frauding the public, nor did he know that the stock was in any 
manner connected with anything which came, or could come, 
within the legislative jurisdiction of Congress. The case against 
him lacks the scienter which alone constitutes guilt. 

In the winter of 1SG9-70 I told General -Garfield of the fact 
that his name was on Ames's list; that Ames charged him with 
being one of his distributees; explained to him the character, 
origin, and objects of the Credit Mobilier; pointed out the con- 
nection it had with Congressional legislation, and showed him 
how impossible it was for a member of Congress to hold stock in 
it without bringing his private interests in conflict with his public 
duty. That all this was to him a perfecly new revelation I am 
as sure as I can be of such a fact, or of any fact which is capa- 
ble of being proved only by moral circumstances. He told me 
then the whole story of Train's offer to him and Ames's subse- 
quent solicitation and his own action in the premises, much as 
he details it to the committee. I do not undertake to reproduce 
the conversation, but the effect of it all was to convince me 
thoroughly that when he listened to Ames he was perfectly un- 
conscious of anything evil. I watched carefully every word that 
fell from him on this point, and did not regard his narrative of 
the transaction in other respects with much interest, because in 
my view everything else was insignificant. I did not care 
whether he had made a bargain technichally binding or not; his 
integrity depended upon the question whether he acted with his 
eyes open. If he had known the true character of the proposi- 
tion made to him he would not have endured it, much less em- 
braced it. 

Now, couple this with Mr. Ames's admission that he gave no 
explanation whatever of the matter to General Garfield, then 
reflect that not a particle of proof exists to show that he learned 
anything about it previous to his conversation with me, and I 
think you will say that it is altogether unjust to put him on the 
list of those who knowingly and willfully joined the fraudulent 
association in question. 

J. S. Black. 

Hon. J. G. Blaine, Speaker of the House of Representatives. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 



THE POINTS IN DISPUTE. 



The points of agreement and difference between General Gar- 
field's testimony and Mr. Ames's may thus be stated : They 
agree that soon after the beginning of the session of 1867-6& 
Mr. Ames offered to sell General Garfield ten shares of Credit 
Mobilier stock at par and accrued interest ; that General Gar- 
field never paid him any money on that offer ; that General 
Garfield never received a certificate of stock ; that after the 
month of June, 1868, General Garfield never received, demanded, 
or was offered any dividend in any form on that stock. They 
also agreed that General Garfield once received from Mr. Ames 
a small sum of money. On the following points they disagreed : 
Mr. Ames claims that General Garfield agreed to take the stock. 
General Garfield denies it. Mr. Ames claims that General 
Garfield receiv d from him $329, and no more, as a balance of 
dividends on the stock. General Garfield denied it, and asserted 
that he borrowed from him $300 and no more, and afterward 
returned it, and that he never received anything from him on 
account of the stock. 

Now as to the proof. Part of the memoranda offered by Mr. 
Ames in evidence were the entries in his diary for 1868. The 
account entered under General Garfield's name was one of three 
not crossed off, which Mr. Ames explained was because it had 
never been settled or adjusted. Here is the entry in full: — 

GARFIELD. 

I o shares Credit M $1,000 oo 

7 mos. i o clays 43 3^ 

Total $1,043 36 

80 per cent. bd. div., at 97 77^ 00 

5207 36 
Int. to June 20 3 64 

Total $ 2 7i 00 

1000 C. M. 
1000 U. P. 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 69 

Notwithstanding he said he had no other entry in relation to 
Mr. Garfield on the 22d of January, Mr. Ames presented to the 
committee a statement of an alleged account with General Gar- 
field, as follows : — 

J. A. G. 

Dr. 

186S. To 10 shares stock Credit Mobilier of A $1,000 oo 

Interest 47 00 

June 19. To cash 329 00 

Total $1,376 00 

Or. 

1868. By dividend bonds Union Pacific Railroad, $1000 at 80 per 

cent, less 3 per cent ^776 00 

June 17. By dividend collected for your account 600 00 

Total $1,376 00 

This account he claimed to have made up from his memoran- 
dum-book, but when the memorandum-book was subsequently 
presented it was found that the account here quoted was not 
copied from it, but was partly made up from memory. By com- 
paring this account with the entry made in the diary, as first 
quoted, it will be seen that they are not duplicates either in sub- 
stance or form; and that in this account a new element is added; 
namely, an alleged payment of $329 in cash June 19. This is 
the very element in dispute. The pretended proof that this 
sum was paid General Garfield is found in the production of a 
check drawn by Mr. Ames on the Sergeant-at-arms. The fol- 
lowing is the language of the check as reported in the testi- 
mony : — 

June 22, 1868. 

Pay O. A. or bearer three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, 
and charge to my account. 

Oakes Ames. 

This check bears no endorsement or other marks than the 
words and figures given above. It was drawn on the 22d day 
of June, and, as shown by the books of the Sergeant-at-arms, 



70 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

•was paid the same day. But if this check was paid to General 
Garfield on the account just quoted it must have been delivered 
to him three days before it was drawn, for the account says that 
he received payment on the 19th of June. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

General Garfield himself has made a review of the whole 
subject, and from it claims that the following conclusions are 
clearly established by the evidence : — 

" That I neither purchased nor agreed to purchase the Credit 
Mobilier stock which Mr. Ames offered to sell me, nor did I re- 
ceive any dividend arising from it. This appears not only from 
my own testimony, but from that first given by Mr. Ames, which 
is not overthrown by his subsequent statements, and is strongly 
confirmed by the fact that in the case of each of those who did 
purchase the stock there was produced as evidence of the sale 
either a certificate of stock, receipt of payment, a check drawn 
in the uame of the payee, or entries iu Mr. Ames's diary of a 
stock accouDt, marked adjusted and closed, but that no one of 
these evidences existed in reference to me. This position is fur- 
ther confirmed by the subsequent testimony of Mr. Ames, -who, 
though he claimed that I did receive $329 from him on account 
of stock, yet he repeatedly testified that beyond that amount I 
never received or demanded any dividend, that none was ever 
offered to me, nor was the subject alluded to in conversation. Mr. 
Ames admitted in his testimony that after December, 1867, the 
various stock and bond dividends amounted to au aggregate of 
more than 800 per cent., and that between January, 1868, and 
May, 1871, all these dividends Avere paid to several of those who 
purchased stork. My conduct was wholly inconsistent with the 
supposition of such ownership, for during the year 1869 I was 
borrowing money to build a house in "Washington, and securing 
my creditors by mortgages on my property; and all this time it 
is admitted that I received no dividends and claimed none. 
The attempt to prove a sale of the stock to me is wholly incon- 
clusive, for it rests first on a check payable to Mr. Ames him- 
self, concerning which he said several times in his testimony he 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 71 

did not know to whom it was paid, and, second, upon loose un- 
dated entries in his diary, which neither prove a sale of the stock 
nor any payment on it. The only fact from which it is possible 
for Mr. Ames to have inferred an agreement to buy the stock 
was the loan to me of $300. But that loan was made months 
before the check of June 22, 1868, and was repaid in the winter 
of 1869, and after that time there were no transactions of any 
sort between us, and before the investigation was ended Mr. 
Ames admitted that on the chief point of difference between us 
he might be mistaken. 

" That the offc-r which Mr. Ames made to me, as I understood 
it, was one which involved no wrong or impropriety. I had no 
means of knowing and had no reason for supposing that behind 
this offer to sell me a small amount of stock lay hidden a 
scheme to defraud the Pacific Railroad and imperil the interest 
of the United States, and on the first intimation of the real 
nature of the case I declined any further consideration of the 
subject. That whatever may have been the facts in the case, I 
stated them in my testimony as I have always understood them; 
and there has been no contradiction, prevarication, nor evasion 
on my part." 

In winding up his review of the whole matter, General Gar- 
field uses the following language : " If there be a citizen of the 
United States who is willing to believe that for $329 I have 
bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have added 
perjury, these words are not addressed to him. If there be one 
who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on 
so low a level as these charges would place it, I do not address 
him. I address those who are willing to believe that it is pos- 
sible for a man to serve the public without personal dishonor. 
I have endeavored in this review to point out the means by 
which the managers of a corporation wearing a garb of honor- 
able industry have robbed and defrauded a great national 
enterprise, and attempted by cunning and deception, for selfish 
ends, to enlist in its interests those who would have been the 
first to crush the attempt had their objects been known." 



72 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

From the proof thus offered it is clear that General Garfield 
never purchased or accepted any of the Credit Mobilier stock, 
and never received any dividend on it. It is true that Mr. 
Oakes Ames proposed that he should take some, and urged that 
it would be a good investment. General Garfield might have 
made the purchase with entire innocence, for there was no 
explanation of its true character or of its relations to the Union 
Pacific Road, and nobody outside of the little "ring" under- 
stood them. It was presented like any business speculation. 
But, as a matter of fact, he declined to take the stock, and had 
no connection with it in any form. The only point upon which 
the assertion of sharing a dividend rests is the fact that he 
borrowed $300 of Mr. Ames. But he gives a full and satis- 
factory explanation, confirmed by other witnesses; He had just 
returned from Europe, and his expenditures had stripped him 
of funds. Mr. Ames had proposed a profitable investment, and 
this talk of financial matters Led him to apply to Mr. Ames for 
the loan, which he soon repaid. After the investigation began 
Mr. Ames represented it as a dividend, but the only proof he 
offered was to produce a check for a different amount payable 
to himself, and presenting nowhere the slighest evidence con- 
necting General Garfield with it in the remotest degree. When 
Mr. Ames first went upon the stand he remembered nothing 
and stated nothing touching General Garfield. Afterwards he 
professed to present some memoranda purporting to give his 
stock account. But there were two pretended accounts which 
were entirely incompatible. In the other cases Mr. Ames 
offered some tangible evidence, — a certificate of stock, a receipt 
for dividend, a check with the name or initials of the party, or 
an account with some intrinsic support. But in the case of 
General Garfield he was not able to* present anything of the 
' sort. 

And now, in contrast with this complete failure to make out 
anything against General Garfield, read the strong and weighty 
letter of Judge Black in his favor. Judge Black had no pro- 
fessional relation with General Garfield. He was and Ls his 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 73 

direct political antagonist. He has the keenest controversial 
mind and wields the sharpest blade in the Democratic party. 
He became familiar with all the facts as the counsel for 
McComb, and he frankly says : " From the beginning of the 
investigation concerning Mr. Ames's use of the Credit Mobilier 
I believed that General Garfield was free from all guilty con- 
nection with that business." And he proceeds in calm and 
convincing terms to give the reason why. Who shall venture 
to dispute the authority of Judge Black? Who shall deny the 
fullness of his knowledge or the accuracy of his judgment? 
Let the assailants of General Garfield, if they can, meet and 
answer this conclusion of the eminent Democratic lawyer. Let 
them, if they dare, fairly quote and undertake to refute the 
irresistible evidence with which the accusation against General 
Garfield is crushed. Some of them profess great candor. Let 
us see whether they will be candid enough to give the truth. 

Meanwhile, the first gun against General Garfield is effect- 
ually spiked ! 

BEECHER ON GARFIELD. 

There was an immense ratification meeting in the Academy of 
Music, Brooklyn, on the evening of June 15th. The principal 
speaker was Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, who made a grand 
speech, during which he said : " I am not one of those men who 
can easily forget the dark days of the Republic. I can never for- 
get that man, singular among Americans — a man that is free 
from vanity, a man that deals in an absolute silence, a man that 
does seldom speak. Other men and noble leaders there were 
whose names are imperishable; but he only was the man whose 
broad shoulders in the hour of its darkness and distress — he only 
had strength to bear up the load and sustain the nation and 
bring it to victory. A man of singular simplicity of character 
— a man in some respects most manly, in others most childlike; 
a man who never spoke a word with a double meaning; a most 
honest, most truthful, and most sincere man. Valiant in his 
friendship, without bitterness in his enmity, he forgot hia 
enemies, but never his friends. I for one, first, last, and all the 



74 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

time, desired that General Grant should have been the choice of 
the Republican party. [Great applause.] But since he was set 
aside, shall I go to my tent and sulk ? shall I refuse to recog- 
nize the facts because I am not gratified in my choice ? God 
forbid [applause], and all the more when the second choice goes 
to a man — an admirable man — who seems to have been desig- 
nated by the providence of God for the emergency of our day. 
Of that man I will speak more at length. 

" Now the great end of all this canvass is not — young men, 
newly-made citizens — not simply the Presidency. "We are not 
fighting for a man, but for a party — for the sake of the policy 
and principles of that party. [Applause.] A man represents 
the party, a party represents a principle, and principles repre- 
sent the policy : and it is the policy and principle for which we 
stand. [Applause.] The President of the United States doubt- 
less has very great influence, but no President of the United 
States is anything without his party. He may do a thousand 
things, but he never can control or direct the Government, 
except he act in unity and sympathy with the party that has 
put him in power. If he do mischievous things, and his party 
is virtuous, they can restrain the mischief. If the party be 
mischievous and he virtuous, he can prevent them from doing 
harm. It is in the power of the party to hold the President of 
these United States within comparative limits. It is the party 
you are to think of, and you are to think of it in respect to the 
great measures they propose to inaugurate and consummate. 

" I have already said, ladies and gentlemen, that I accept the 
results of the immortal Convention. I accept them as being a 
declaration of the will of Providence. [Applause.] And it is 
easier to accept them because the choice has fallen upon one 
whom all men can receive without abatement and without scruple 
— a Christian gentleman. [Applause.] A man who has known 
every stage of American citizenship, from the day when he went 
barefooted on the farm or along the track of the canal — a man 
whose hands have handled tools, as his Master did before him — 
a man who has not been brought up with a golden spoon in his 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 75 

mouth, but who steadily built up his fortune and advanced 
along his path not by tricks of policy but by strong manliness ; 
until he eat by overwhelming majorities in the council of the . 
nation, and has sat there for fifteen or twenty years with the 
utmost trust of those who know him most perfectly [loud cheersj, 
and who has shown great firmness of conviction with great kind- 
ness in urging those convictions; who has struck manly blows 
for the right without making enemies of those whom he smote ; 
who has had a conscience and yet who has used conciliation, and 
has friends as warm among his antagonists as among his own 
party. [Ringing cheers.] And if he should come to the 
administration of that great trust of government with the full 
sympathy of his party, I believe, with his happy tact of good 
management, proceeding from good manliness, that his admin- 
istration will be as dispassionate, as impartial, and as pure as 
that of any in the long and honorable line of Presidents we have 
had." [Loud applause.] 

On the lGth of June General Garfield visited Washington on 
private business and was enthusiastically received. The sere- 
nade given to him in the evening drew out the largest crowd 
seen in Washington for years. The local Republican organiza- 
tions were out in force and the procession made a fine display. 
General Garfield spoke about seven minutes and was very heart- 
ily received. His speech was in the best of taste and made an 
excellent impression. Attorney - General Devens introduced 
him, aud brushed aside the charges which are now being heaped 
upon Garfield by the quiet remark: "Let us leave to others 
slander and backbiting and mud-throwing." Ex-Secretary 
Robeson and a number of other speakers made effective little 
addresses, and the occasion proved a great success. 

GENERAL PRESS DISPATCH. 

Washington, June 16. — The portico of the Riggs House> 
at which General Garfield is a guest, was tastefully decorated 
with flags and bunting and the surrounding streets were bril- 
liantly illuminated with calcium lights, while at frequent inter- 



76 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

vals rockets and other fireworks were set off from the steps of 
the Treasury Department. As the procession filed past, cheers 
were given for Garfield, and as that gentleman appeared on the 
platform, accompanied by ex-Secretary Robeson and Attorney- 
General Devens, they were renewed. Colonel J. O. P. Burn- 
side introduced General Devens, who stepped to the front of the 
2>latform, and after a few introductory remarks said: — - 

That the American people stood to-day on the threshold of 
one of the grandest sp< < tacles which the world ever saw, that of 
a great free people about to choose their ruler. Let that transac- 
tion be approached with the gravity which befitted its dignity. 
Let the Republican party have to others slander and back- 
biting and mud-throwing. [Cheers.] Let it strive to lift the 
conflict up to the plai of great principle. The shifting sands 
of compromise had passed away, and the American people had 
planted thems< Ives on the great principle of liberty and equality. 
[Cheers.] 1 [e alluded to the stormy scenes of the Chicago Con- 
vention. There had been disappointment and feeling, and at 
one time he had feared that there might be division and dissen- 
sion. That time had passed away, and out of the nettle danger 
had been plucked the flower safety. [Cheers.] He referred to 
the great Republican Presidents, — Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes, — 
and each name was greeted with loud cheers. "If," he con- 
cluded, "you sought to find an example in one person of the 
mode in which, by our free civilization, hope is given to the hum- 
blest as well as to the highest-born to aspire, by lofty aim, by 
high ambition, by noble prophecies, to the greatest office in your 
gift, where would you seek it but in James A. Garfield. [Cheers.] 
I introduce to you, therefore, a scholar who has found the path 
of learning no primrose path, but has won his way along by 
steady industry; a soldier whose shield is unsoiled and whose 
sword is spotless ; a statesman on whom rests no stain or dis- 
honor ; a Christian gentleman, respecting the rights of every 
man because he himself is kind, considerate, and self-respecting 
always. I introduce General James A. Garfield." [Loud 
cheering.] 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 



77 



General Garfield said: — 

Fellow-citizens: — While I have looked upon this great 
array I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of the 
American people. When I reflect that wherever you find sov- 
ereign power every reverent heart on this earth bows before it, 
and when I remember that here for a hundred years we have 
denied the sovereignty of any man, and in place of it we have 
asserted the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before me 
so vast a concourse that it is easy for me to imagine that the 
rest of the American people are gathered here to-night, and if 
they were all here every man would stand uncovered, all in un- 
sandaled feet, in presence of the majesty of the only sovereign 
power in this Government under Almighty God. [Cheers.] 
And, therefore, to this great audience I pay the respectful homage 
that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the people. I thank 
you for this great and glorious demonstration. I am not, for a 
moment, misled into believing that it refers to so poor a thing 
as any one of our number. I know it means your reverence for 
your Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence 
for its institutions, and your compliment to one who is placed 
for a moment in relations to you of peculiar importance. 
For all these reasons I thank you. I caunot at this time 
utter a word on the subject of general politics. I would not 
mar the cordiality of this welcome, to which to some extent all are 
gathered, by any reference except to the present moment and its 
significance; but I wish to suy that a large portion of this assem- 
blage to-night are my comrades, late of the war lor the Union. 
For tin in I can speak with entire propriety, and can say that 
these very streets heard the measured tread of your disciplined 
feet, years ago, when the imperiled Republic needed your hands 
and your hearts to save it, and you came back with your num- 
bers decimated ; but those you left behind were immortal and 
glorified heroes forever; and those you brought back came car- 
rying under tattered banners and in bronze hands the ark of 
the covenant of your Republic in safety out of the bloody bap- 
tism of the war [cheers], and you brought it in safety to be 



78 (iENERAI, J. A. GARFIELD. 

saved forever by your valor and the wisdom of your brethren 
who were at home, and by this you were again added to the 
great civil army of the Republic. I greet you, comrades and 
fellow-soldiers, and the great body of distinguished citizens who 
are gathered here to-night, who are the strong stay and support 
of the business, of the prosperity, of the peace, of the civic 
ardor and glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your wel- 
come to-night. It was said in a welcome to one who came to 
England to be a part of her glory — and all the nation spoke 
when it was said: — 

" Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, 
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.'* 

And we say to-night of all the nation, of all the people, 
soldiers and civilians, there is one name that welds us all into 
one. It is the name of American citizen, under the Union and 
under the glory of the flag, that led us to victory and to peace. 
[Applause.] For this magnificent welcome I thank you with 
all there is in my heart. 

Loud cheers were then given for General Garfield as he 
retired from the platform, and his place was taken by other 
speakers. Senator Logan came in for a large share of the 
applause when he announced that, first, last, and all the time, he 
had been for the nominee of the Republican party. Other 
speeches were delivered by General Anson McCook, of New 
York ; General G. A. Sheridan, of the District of Columbia ; Mr. 
Paigner, of South Carolina, and Representatives Haskell, Hen- 
derson, Williams, and Shallenberger, after which the assemblage 
dispersed. 

On the evening of the 17th the members of the Society of 
the Army of the Cumberland, of which General Garfield is a 
member, gave him a banquet at the Riggs House. The large 
dining-hall of the hotel was specially arranged for the occasion 
and was appropriately decorated with portraits of Generals Gar- 
field and Thomas and a profusion of flags. At 9 P.M. General 
Garfield entered the banquet-hall leaning on the arm of Gene- 
ral Sherman, and was escorted to the head of the table, all the 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 79 

members remaining standing until General Sherman called the 
assembly to order. 

General Sherman sat at the head of the table with General 
Garfield on his right. Secretaries Schurz, Ramsey, Sherman, 
and Thompson, Postmaster-General ,Key and Attorney-General 
Devens were present and occupied seats at the same table with 
Generals Garfield and Sherman. General Sherman announced 
that the meeting to-night was for the purpose of welcoming 
their comrade of the Army of the Cumberland, General Gar- 
field. General Anson G. McCook, of New York, in a brief 
apeechjntroduced General Garfield as one who had always done 
his duty in war, and who was, therefore, entitled to the highest 
honors- that could be given him. General Garfield then rose, 
and was received with enthusiastic applause. Pie said he knew 
of nothing more difficult than for a man to speak of such com- 
pliments as had been paid him without embarrassment, but 
there was something in the character of soldierhood which gives 
a freedom to speech and makes one feel and think without 
embarrassment. The men who were present, he said, had been 
so tried in war that their sympathies ran out to each other. He 
did not feel at this time like indulging in the jingling talk of 
politics. He paid a high compliment to the acts of the volun- 
teer soldiers of the army, as well as to the regulars, and said he 
never felt the jealousy of the regulars which some people felt. 
Both armies had done their full duty and he rejoiced in the con- 
duct of the regulars as he did in that of the volunteers. The 
war had resulted in one army and one nationality. Referring 
to the motives which actuated the soldiers of both Northern and 
Southern armies during the Rebellion, he said both sides believed 
they were right. In conclusion, he said with regard to the con- 
duct of our 'foes, he believed many of them had now become 
the noblest of our friends, and that the country was now in 
spirit, as it was in name, one people, with one- flag and with one 
destiny. After the close of General Garfield's remarks a number 
of toasts were proposed, and responded to by Secretary Schurz, 
Postmaster-General Key, Secretary Thompson, and others, after 



80 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

which- at a late hour, General Sherman declared the meeting 
adjourned sive die, and the company dispersed. 

Under the caption, "A Rare American," "Oath" (George 
Alfred Townsend,) pays the following heartfelt tribute to Gene- 
ral Garfield : — 

" The writer has known General Garfield pretty well for 
thirteen years. He is a large, well-fed, hale, ruddy, brown- 
bearded man, weighing about two hundred and twenty pounds, 
with Ohio German colors, blue eyes, military face, erect figure 
and shoulders, large back and thighs and broad chest, and evi- 
dently bred in the country on a farm. His large mouth is full 
of strong teeth; his nose, chin, and brows are strongly pro- 
nounced. A large brain, with room for play of thought and 
long application, rises high above his clear, discerning, enjoying 
eyes. He sometimes suggests a country Samson — strong beyond 
his knowledge, but unguarded as a school-boy. He pays little 
attention to the affectation by which some men manage public 
opinion, and has one kind of behavior for all callers, which is 
the most natural behavior at hand. Strangers would think him 
a little' cold and mentally shy. On acquaintance he is seen to 
be hearty above everything, loving the wife around him, his 
family, his friends, his State and country. Loving sympathetic 
and achieving people, and with a large unprofessing sense of 
the brotherhood of workers in the fields of progress, it was the 
feeling of sympathy and the desire to impart which took him 
for chief, while as to the pulpit, or on the verge of it, full of all 
that he saw and acquired, he panted to give it forth after it had 
passed through the alembic of his mind. Endowed with a warm 
temperament, copious expression, large, wide-seeing faculties 
and superabundant health, he could study all night or lecture 
all day, and it was a providence that his neighbors discovered 
that he was too much of a man to conceal in the pulpit, where 
his docility and reverence had almost taken him. They sent 
him to the State Legislature, where he was when the war broke 
out, and he immediately went to the field, where his courage 
and painstaking parts and love of open-air occupation and per- 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 81 

feet freedom from self-assertion made him the delight of Rose- 
crans and George H. Thomas successively. He would go about 
any work they asked of him, was unselfish and enthusiastic, and 
had steady, temperate habits, and his large brain and reverence 
made everything novel to him. 

"There is an entire absence of nonchalance or worldliness in 
his nature. He is never indifferent, never vindictive. A base 
action or ingratitude or cruelty may make him sad, but does not 
provoke retaliation or alter that faith in men or Providence 
which is a part of his sound stomach and athletic head. Gar- 
field is as simple as a child ; to the serpent's wisdom he is a 
stranger. Having no use nor aptitude with the weapons of 
coarser natures, he often avoids mere disputes, does not go to the 
public resorts where men are familiar and vulgar, and the walk 
from his home in Washington to the Capitol, and an occasional 
dinner out, comprise his life. The word public servant especi- 
ally applies to him. He has been the drudge of his State con- 
stituents, the public, the public societies, the moral societies of 
his party and country, since 1863. Aptitude for public debate 
and public affairs are associated with a military nature in him. 
He is on a broad scale a schoolmaster of the range of Gladstone, 
of Agassiz, of Gallatin. 

" With, as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitors of 
sordid ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly 
wise in him that he is poor, and yet has been accused of dis- 
honesty. He has no capacity for investment, nor the rapid 
solution of wealth, nor profound respect for the penny in and 
out of pound, and still is neither careless, improvident, nor 
dependent. The great consuming passions to equal richer 
people and live finely and extend his social power are as foreign 
to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicious nor 
a high-nettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly 
from his obliging, unrefusing disposition. Men who were schem- 
„ ing imposed upon him as upon Grant and other crude-eyed men 
of affairs. The people of his district, who are quick to punish 
public venality or defection, heard him in his defense in 1873 



S2 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

and kept him in Congress and held up his hand, and hence ho 
is by their unwavering support for twenty-five years candidate 
for President and a national character. Since John Quincy 
Adams no President has had Garfield's scholarship, which is 
equal up to this age of wider facts. 

" The average American, pursuing money all day long, is now 
presented to a man who had invariably put the business of 
others above his own, and Avorked for that alleged nondescript — ■ 
the public gratitude — all his life. But he has not labored 
without reward. The great nomination came to-day to as pure 
and loving a man as ever wished well of anybody and put his 
shoulder to his neighbor's wheel. Garfield's big, boyish heart 
is pained to-night with the weight of his obligation, affection, 
and responsibility. To-day, as hundreds of telegrams come from 
everywhere, saying kind, strong things to him, — such messages 
as only Americans in their rapid, good impulses pour upon a 
lucky friend, — he was with two volunteer clerks in a room open- 
ing and reading, and suddenly bis two boys sent him one, — little 
fellows at school, — and as he read it be broke down and tried to 
talk, but bis voice choked, and he could not f-ee for tears. Tho 
clerks began to blubber, too, and people to whom they after- 
wards told it. This sense of real great heart will be new to the 
country, and will grow if he gets the Presidency. Uis wife was 
one of bis scholars in Ohio. Like him she is of a New England 
family, transplanted to the West, a pure-hearted, brave, unas- 
suming woman; the mother of seven or eight children, and, as 
he told me only a few weeks ago, had never, by any remark, 
brought him into the least trouble, while she w r as unstampedable 
by any elamor. lie is the ablest public speaker in the country, 
and the most serious and instructive man on the stump ; his 
instincts, liberal and right ; his courtesy, noticeable in our 
politics ; his aims, ingenuous, and his piety comes by nature. 
He leads a farmer's life, all the recess of Congress, working like 
a field-hand, and restoring his mind by resting it. If elected, 
he will give a tone of culture and intelligence to the Executive 
office it has never yet had, while he has no pedantry in his 



GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 83 

composition, and no conceit whatever. General Garfield may 
be worth $25,000, or a little more than Mr. Lincoln was when 
he took the office. His old mother, a genial lady, lives in the 
family, and his kindness to her on every occasion bears out the 
commandment of ' Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be long in the land.' " 

The Rev. Henry M. Field, D.D., in an article in the New 
York Evangelist, of which he is the editor, says : — 

" We do not propose to speak of General Garfield as the 
public know him, but as we know him, giving our own personal 
impressions for what they are worth. While the Evangelist 
takes no part in political contests, yet it is not indifferent to the 
character of our public men, and feels it to be a duty to con- 
tribute, as far as possible, to the information of its readers, in 
regard to those for whom their votes are asked. With General 
Garfield we have had a personal acquaintance for many years. 
He is a graduate of our Alma Mater, and we have met him at 
commencements, as well as in Washington. Not long ago he 
told us very simply and modestly the story of his early life, of 
his struggles to get an education ; how, after studying in Ohio, 
he decided to come to an Eastern college, and wrote to several 
presidents to ask for information : and how the kind letter he 
received from Dr. Hopkins decided him to go to Williams Col- 
lege. It was a happy choice. Entering the junior class, he 
was there but two years, but during that time he had the 
invaluable instruction of that eminent teacher; and probably 
there is no man living for whom he feels more sincere venera- 
tion — a feeling of mingled respect and affection — than his old 
teacher, so honored and beloved, President Mark Hopkins. 

" In college he was one of the foremost. We have seen it 
stated in some paper that the richer students looked down upon 
him because of his poverty. But this we must believe to be a 
pure invention. At any rate, if a few smiled at the rough 
figure and coarse garments of the uncouth Westerner, he soon 
inspired a different feeling. There is no purer democracy in the 
world than in an American college — no place where young men 



84 GENERAIi J. A. GARFIELD. 

who are ' stuck up,' as the phrase is, elated by their wealth or 
social position, are sooner ' taken down.' Money counts for 
little when brought in comparison or in contrast with personal 
qualities. The things which college students respect most are 
muscle and brains, physical strength and intellectual capacity. 
Garfield had both. He could hold his own anywhere, — on the 
ball-grounds, or in a rough-and-tumble, as well as in the class- 
room. If anybody affected to ' look down ' upon him, the 
supercilious youth would soon be taught to ' look up ' from his 
own position lying flat on his back. But he commanded respect 
not only by his strength and courage, but by his standing in his 
class. He was a good scholar, and especially a good debater ; 
and when to these qualities it be added that he was also a 
devout Christian, it may well be supposed that his personal 
influence was excellent. The deference which college boys feel 
for physical prowess gives to those who possess this only an evil 
ascendancy. There is no more dangerous man in such an insti- 
tution than a great, hulking fellow, who, with his strength of 
limb, is vulgar and profane,— a coarse, swaggering bully. Such 
a man sometimes demoralizes a whole college. But when one 
comes among young men, a giant in strength, yet pure in heart 
and clean of tongue, his physical qualities give a prodigious 
momentum to his religious influence. 

" Graduating in 1856, the young student returned to Ohio to 
engage in teaching, and occasionally in preaching, for the family 
belonged to the sect of Disciples, or Campbellites, which requires 
no ordination, and no course of theological study ; and as he 
had special ' gifts ' for speaking in public, he ' exercised his 
gifts' in the gatherings of his brethren. It was at this time) 
that he married a lady, who, though extremely modest and 
retiring, is well known to be highly educated, and full of the 
best womanly sense, as well as womanly feeling. She has had a 
great influence over his subsequent career ; and it is to the 
honor of the man that he ascribes much of his success to his 
wife. From these peaceful domestic scenes, and this quiet life^ 
he was called by the breaking out of the war. The moment the 



GENERAL, J. A. GARFIELD. 85 

country was in danger, and had need of her sons, he entered the 
field, and rose to distinction. To this portion of his career we 
have no need to refer, as the chroniclers will recount it in the 
fullest detail. We shall never forget an evening which he spent 
with us at Willard's, in Washington, at the close of the war, 
when he gave us a long and intensely interesting account of the 
Battle of Chickamauga, in which he had taken part. The 
description was so minute and so vivid that it has remained in 
our memory, leaving an impression more distinct than we have 
of any other battle of the war. He was the chief of staff of 
General Rosecrans, and when the army was defeated, and 
retiring in hot haste from the field, he heard the sound of can- 
non in the distance, which told him that General Thomas, who 
commanded the left, was still fighting to save the fortunes of the 
dav, and, turning nis horse, he rode straight to that part of the 
field, thinking, perhaps, like Napoleon at Marengo, that, 
' though one battle was lost, there was time to gain another,' 
and remained with that great commander till his stubborn 
resistance saved the army. 

" Since the war General Garfield's place has been in Congress, 
where he has been seen and known of all who have visited 
Washington. There he has gradually risen to the position of 
the leader of his party in the House of Representatives, not by 
pushing or ambition, but by the natural ascendancy accorded to 
superior ability. No man could command such a position, and 
hold it, without talents of a high order, the possession of which 
is now conceded to him by all — not only those of his own, but of 
the opposite party. 

" But no degree of success has ever changed the man. He 
has always been the same — simple in character and modest in 
manner, though with the consciousness of strength which comes 
with long experience of his power, yet with an utter absence of 
arrogance and pretension. He is pre eminently a man of the 
people. Born in a very humble home, among the poor, all his 
sympathies are with them. He has no more pride than Lincoln 
had. Indeed, there are many points of resemblance in the 
characters, as well as in the careers, of the two men. 



86 GENERAL J. A. GARFIELD. 

" And now, if we were to sum up in oue word the impression 
which he makes upon us, it would be that of his thorough 
manliness. He is every inch a man. There is something manly 
in his very physique. Tall in person, broad-chested and strong- 
limbed, he has the figure of an athlete. His head is large, and 
the expression of his face one of mingled intelligence and kindli- 
ness. He has an open countenance — one in which we can detect 
no lines of craft and cunning, but which shows a frank and open 
nature, that scorns guile and trickery and deceit. If there be 
anything in physiognomy, — if we can read the mind in the face, 
— we should say : This is a true, brave, honest man, who would 
serve- his country in any station, legislative or executive, with 
the same manly courage which he showed in the field. 

" But there is more in his countenance even than intelligence 
and simplicity of character. There is another thing which goes 
with true manliness — great sweetness and gentleness, something 
which shows under a frame of iron, a heart, which we do not 
always find united with sterner qualities. It is a face, in short, 
whii h indicates one who is brave as a lion and gentle as a 
woman. Such is the hero of the hour. We repeat, he is ' every 
inch a man ' — big-brained, big-breasted, and big-hearted — a 
man to love as a companion, and to follow as a leader. 

"Such is he who, in the full vigor of his manhood, — he is not 
yet fifty, — is nominated for President of the United States. 
Should he be elected to that office, we are sure that he would 
carry into his new position the same qualities which he has 
shown hitherto, and that, as the head of the Government, he 
would pursue the same straightforward course, and maintain 
the manly simplicity and integrity of the early days of the 
Republic." 



Gen'l CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 






Gen. Chester A. Arthur was born in Franklin County, 
Vt., October 5, 1830. He is the oldest of a family of two sons 
and five daughters. His father was the Rev. Dr. William 
Arthur, a Baptist clergyman, who emigrated to this country 
from county Antrim, Ireland, in his eighteenth year, and died 
October 27, 1875, in Newtonville, near Albany. Dr. Arthur 
was in many respects a remarkable man. He acquired extended 
fame not only in his calling, but also in the domains of author- 
ship. His work on " Family Names " is regarded the world 
over as one of the curiosities of English erudite literature. 
From 1855 to 1863 he was pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church, 
of New York city. He also filled the pulpits of Baptist churches 
at Bennington, Hinesburg, Fairfield, and Williston, in Vermont, 
and York, Perry, Greenwich, Schenectady, Lansinburg, Hooslc, 
West Troy, and Newtonville, in the State of New York. His 
other son made a gallant record in the war of the Rebellion, 
and is now a Paymaster of the Regular Army, with the rank of 
Major. 

Gen. Arthur was educated at Union College, and was gradu- 
ated in the Class of '49. After leaving college, he taught a 
country school during two years in Vermont, and then, having 
managed by rigid economy to save about $500, he started for 
New York, and entered the law office of ex-Judge E. D. Culver 
as a student. After being admitted to the bar, he formed a 
partnership with his intimate friend and room-mate, Henry D. 
Gardiner, with the intention of practicing in the West, and for 
three months they roamed about in the Western States in search 
of an eligible site, but in the end returned to New York city, 
where they hung out their joint shingle, and entered upon a suc- 
cessful career almost from the start. General Arthur soon after- 
ward married the daughter of Lieut. Herndon, United States 
Navy, who was lost at sea, and who calmly went down to death 
smoking a cigar. Congress voted a gold medal to his widow in 
of the conspicuous bravery he displayed on that 
asion. Mrs. Arthur died only a short time ago. 



90 GENERA], (HESTER A. ARTHUR. 

In 1852 Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon, Virginian slaveholders, 
intending to emigrate to Texas, went'to New York to await the 
sailing of a steamer, bringing eight slaves with them. A writ 
of habeas corpus was obtained from Judge Paine to test the ques- 
tion whether the provisions of the Fugitive Slave law were in force 
in that State. Judge Paine rendered a decision holding that 
they were not, and ordering the Lemmon slaves to be liberated. 
Henry L. Clinton was one of the counsel for the slaveholders. 
A howl of rage went up from the South, and the Virginia 
Legislature authorized the Attorney-General of that State to 
assist in taking an appeal. William M. Evarts and Chester A. 
Arthur were employed to represent the people, and they won 
their case, which then went to the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Charles O'Connor here espoused the cause of the slave- 
holders, but he, too, was beaten by Messrs. Evarts and Arthur, and 
along step was taken toward the emancipation of the black race. 
Another great service was rendered by Gen. Arthur in the same 
cause in 1856. Lizzie Jennings, a respectable colored woman, was 
put off a Fourth-avenue car with violence, after Bhe had paid her 
fare. Gen. Arthur sued on her behalf, and secured a verdict of 
$500 damages. The next day the company issued an order to 
permit colored persons to ride on their cars, and the other car 
companies quickly followed their example. Before that the 
Sixth-Avenue Company ran a few special cars for colored per- 
sons, and the other lines refused to let them ride at all. 

General Arthur was a delegate to the Convention at Saratoga 
tnat founded the Republican party. Previous (o the outbreak 
of the war he was Judge-Advocate of the Second Brigade of 
the State Militia, and Governor Edwin D. Morgan, soon after 
his inauguration, selected him to fill the position of the Engi- 
neer-in-Chief of his staff. In 18G1 he held the post of Inspector- 
General, and soon afterward was advanced to that of Quarter- 
master-General, which he held until the expiration of Morgan's 
term of office. No higher encomium can be passed upon him 
than the mention of the fact that, although the war account of 
the State of New York was at least ten times larger than that 



GENERAL, CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 91 

of any other State, yet it was the first audited and allowed in 
Washington, and without the deduction of a dollar, while the quar- 
masters' accounts from other States were reduced from $1,000,000 
to $10,000,000. During his term of office every present sent to 
him was immediately returned. Among others a prominent 
clothing-house offered him a magnificent uniform, and a printing- 
house sent him a costly saddle and trappings. Both gifts were 
indignantly rejected. When Mr. Arthur became Quartermaster- 
General he was poor. When his term expired he was poorer 
still. He had opportunities to make millions unquestioned. 
Contracts larger than the world had ever 6een were at his dis- 
posal. He had to provide for the clothing, arming, and trans- 
portation of hundreds of thousands of men. Speaking of him 
at this period, a friend says : " So jealous was he of his integrity 
that I have known instances where he could have made thou- 
sands of dollars legitimately, and yet refused to do it on the 
ground that he was a public officer and meant to be like 
Csesar's wife, ' above suspicion.' His own words to me in regard 
to this matter amply illustrate his character. ' If I had mis- 
appropriated five cents, and on walking down-town saw two 
men talking on the corner together, I would imagine they were 
talking of my dishonesty, and the very thought would drive me 
mad.' " 

At the expiration of Governor Morgan's term General Arthur 
returned to his law practice. Business of the most lucrative 
character poured in upon him, and the firm of Arthur & Gardi- 
ner prospered exceedingly. Much of their work consisted in the 
collection of war-claims and the drafting of important bills for 
speedy legislation, and a great deal of General Arthur's time 
was spent in Albany and Washington, where his uniform succeas 
won for him a national reputation. For a short time he held 
the position of counsel to the Board of Tax Commissioners of 
New York city, at $10,000 per annum. Gradually he was 
drawn into the arena of politics. He nominated, and by his 
efforts elected, the Hon. Thomas Murphy a State Senator. When 
the latter resigned the Collectorship of the port on November 
20, 1871, President Grant nominated General Arthur to the 



92 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

vacant position, and four years later, when his terra expired, 
renominated him, an honor that had never been shown to any 
previous Collector in the history of the port. He was removed 
by President Hayes on July 12, 1878, despite the fact that two 
special committees made searching investigation into his admin- 
istration, and both reported themselves unable to find anything 
upon which to base a charge against him. In their pronuncia- 
mentos announcing the change, both President Hayes and Sec- 
retary Sherman bore official witness to the purity of his acts 
while in office. A petition for his retention was signed by every 
Judge of every court in the city, by all the prominent members 
of the bar, and by nearly every important merchant in the 
collection district, but this General Arthur himself suppressed. 

In a letter to Secretary Sherman, reviewing the work of one 
of the investigating committees, General Arthur produced sta- 
tistics to show that during his term of over six years in office 
the percentage of removals was only 2$, against an annual 
average of about 28 per cent, under his three immediate prede- 
cessors, and an annual average of about 24 per cent, since 1857. 
Of the 923 persons in office prior to his appointment, 531 were 
still retained on May 1, 1877. All appointments except two to 
the 100 positions commanding salaries of $2000 per year were 
made on the plan of advancing men from the lower to the 
higher grades on the recommendation of heads of bureaus. The 
reforms which General Arthur instituted in the methods of 
doing business in the custom-house were as numerous as they 
were grateful to the mercantile community. Since his removal 
he has been engaged in the practice of the law, and in the 
direction of Republican politics in the State, being Chairman of 
the Republican State Committee. In person he is over six feet 
in height, broad-shouldered, athletic, and handsome. Like his 
predecessor, "William A. Wheeler, he is an ardent disciple of 
Walton, and a member of the Restigouche Salmon Fishing 
Club. He is a man of great culture and wide experience, an 
able lawyer, with refined tastes, and manners of the utmost 
geniality. 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 93 

THE NOMINATION. 

The Chicago Convention, which had been so deliberate in the 
selection of a candidate for the Presidency, went about com- 
pleting the ticket, on the evening of June the 8th, without plan 
or organization. After Mr. Houck's speech ex-Lieutenant- 
Governor Woodford rose in the New York delegation, and 
standing upon his seat, and after a brief reference to the loyal 
support which New York had given to General Grant, said that 
New York could not be behind any in support of the candidate 
nominated to-day, and he presented the name of General C. A. 
Arthur for the second place on the ticket. The nomination was 
received with a good deal of applause in the New York delegation, 
but the galleries and the body of the Convention were silent. 

Presently the tall, slim form of ex-Governor Dennison, of 
Ohio, was seen rising above the heads of the delegates from that 
State. This was the critical point in the contest. Governor 
Dennison, with Governor Foster and General Garfield, had been 
Secretary Sherman's nearest friends in the whole contest ; and 
Secretary Sherman was probably the one candidate of all who 
had made the canvass that Conkling and Arthur would have 
least desired to have nominated. Now the one man who had 
been the cause of the bitter enmity between the Administration 
and the Senator from New York, the man whose removal from 
office by Mr. Sherman had been made the occasion by Mr. 
Conkling for the most savage attacks on the Secretary of the 
Treasury and the rest, was a candidate before the Convention, 
and it seemed hardly possible that Governor Dennison was ready 
to offer the vote of his State for that man ; but he did it, and 
the action of Ohio turned the scale. Governor Dennison, in 
seconding the nomination, pledged the vote of Ohio for the 
ticket in November by a majority of 30,000. 

Then came the flood ; General Kilpatrick followed with one 
of his florid speeches for Arthur. Illinois was the next to wheel 
into line, Mr. Emory A. Storrs leading up that State and rang- 
ing it by the side of New York and Ohio. The nomination of 
General Arthur was by this time assured. 

After a Maryland delegate had brought up the vote of that 



04 GENERAL ^HESTER A. ARTHUR. 

State, or :.t least promised it, Mr. Filley, of St. Louis, was 
anxious t > have the nomination made by acclamation. The 
Chairman of the Convention ruled that it would be out of order, 
but suggested that it would be in order by a two-thirds vote to 
suspi nd the rules and declare any oue nominated. Mr. Filley 
demanded a suspension of the rules, but the motion was lost and 
the call of the States proceed< d. Delegate Chambers, of Texas, 
presented the name of the candidate from the Lone Star State, 
ex-Governor E. J. Davis, but the Convention was too impatient 
to listen to him. Florida was the next State to be swept away 
by the flood, and Mr. Hicks, the chairman of the delegation, 
withdrew the name of Judge Settle and seconded the nomina- 
tion of Arthur. New York, Illinois, and Ohio had joined hands 
for this most unexpected nomination. Pennsylvania was the 
last of the great States to swing into lino. Mr. Cessna said that 
the Keystone State was once more within two of a unit, and 
that union was for General Arthur. By this time the Convention 
completely lost control of itself, and the enthusiasm on the 
'floor was wild, though not intelligent. For once the galleries 
were in a more judicial frame of mind. A colored man from 
North Carolina transferred the vote of Settle to Arthur. All 
opposition to Arthur by this time had gone to pieces. The 
N> w York bolters also went over, and Senator McCarthy with- 
drew their support from Washburne and gave it to Arthur. 
The last speech was made by Mr. Campbell, of West Virginia, 
who intended to have nominated General Nathan Goff, of that 
Stat", but who, amid much confusion, declared the intention of 
the delegates from West Virginia to support Mr. Washburne. 
The way the galleries leaned was manifested when Campbell 
seconded tho nomination of Washburne. The spectators arose 
and shouted lustily and long, wearying the patience of the dele- 
gates so sorely that Senator Dorsey's motion to clear the galleries 
in case of the repetition was carried. A motion to suspend tho 
rules and nominate by ballot was declared lost, and the ballot 
was taken. As was expected, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania 
joined the standard of the New Yorker, and the ballot resulted 
as follows : — 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



95 



THE BALLOT. 



STATES. 




Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Colorado 

Connecticut.. 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine.. 



2J 
12 

U 
6 
1.! 
6 
8 
22 
42 
30 
22 
10 
24 
L6 
11 

Maryland I 1G 

2G 

22 

10 

16 

30 

G 

6 

1 I 

13 

70 

20 

41 

6 

58 

8 

11 

24 

16 

10 

22 

'9 

20 

2 



Massachusetl 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

New Hamp: hire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Carolina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode I land 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Vermont 

Virginia 

West Virginia 

VVisconi in 

Arizona 

Dakota 

Disti ict of Columbia.. 

Idaho 

Montana 

New Mexico 

Utah 

Washington Territory. 
Wyominj 



Grand Total. 



756 103 



24 . 
5 . 



16 
2 
6 
8 
11 
30 



3 
3 
C9 
20 
42 
6 
47 



' I 



24 



1 I 41 



8 I 30 



Five delegates did not vote. 

Whole number of votes cast 75 1 

Necessa-y to a choice 37^ 



Washburnc 193 

Jewell 44 

Settle I 

Maynard 30 

Arthur 4^3 



Davis , 

Woodford 

Bruce, of Mississippi... 
Alcorn, of Mississippi. 



<I(J GENERAL < HESTER A. ARTHUR. 

Mr. Frye, in the Ctiair, said that Mr. Arthur, having received 
a majority of all the votes cast, was the candidate for Vice- 
President, and inquired : " Shall the nomination he made unani- 
mous ?" 

Mr. Haymond, of California, moved that it be made unani- 
mous. 

Votes of thanks were then passed to the officers of the Con- 
vention, and the usual committee of one from each State was 
authorized to apprise the candidates of their nominations, when 
the Convention adjourned sine die. 

General Arthur, in returning to his home, arrived in New 
York on Wednesday evening at seven o'clock, and met with a 
highlv flattering reception from his friends and fellow-citizens. 
It was a highly respectable multitude that filled the sidewalks 
and the doors of the Forty-second street front of the depot at 
half-past six, probably a more influential assemblage than ever 
before gathered at that place; for instead of the curiosity- 
seekers that have followed in the wake of Presidents of the 
United States who have entered the city or departed from it 
through the Grand Central Depot, the men who waited on that 
sidewalk and in the corridors were of New York's best, assem- 
bled to attest their grateful sense of the honor that a national 
convention had bestowed upon one of their neighbors. There 
were thirty-five members of the Ninth Ward Republican Asso- 
ciation, and the associations in all the Assembly districts were 
well represent* d, if not in numbers, certainly in character. 

As the time for the coming of the train bearing General 
Arthur and his son and Commissioner French drew near, the 
multitude — perhaps a thousand men — surged past the gate- 
keepers and down the long stone platforms between the track- 
in the depot, and began to fall into line for a procession. But 
this was impracticable. Their numbers were too great. They 
overflowed from the platforms into the spaced provided for the 
tramways, and when the locomotive snorted into sight they 
were a mass in some places squeezing each other very closely. 

"He's in the last car!" was shouted by a gentleman far down 
the long, long platform, and a rush was made for the northern 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 97 

end of the depot, almost crushing those who were already there. 
The locomotive passed the northern wall, and the sharp crack 
of a large track-torpedo startled the multitude. Then followed 
the detonations of other torpedoes as the train rolled on, and 
they were repeated and intensified a thousand-fold from the vast 
glass roof of the great depot. The reverberations were almost 
deafening. 

Car after car was emptied of its human freight, but the 
General did not appear, and the excited mass of men began to 
be impatient. " Is there any mistake ?" was a question that 
passed from lip to lip, until at length a shout near the rear 
sleeper answered the query. It was taken up far back towards 
the southern part of the depot; the immense semicircle high 
above the heads of the multitude sent it back a roar. A large, 
well-formed man in a mixed business suit of no particular color, 
and wearing a drab Derby hat, whose black ribbon was so 
broad as almost to conceal it, appeared on the platform of the 
car. " Three cheers for the next Vice-President of the United 
States !" was shouted. They were given with a will, and with 
them a tiger. Three more. Then three cheers and a tiger for 
General Chester A. Arthur, and the cheering was continued. 
The General greeted a relative and then shook hands with Mr. 
Thomas C. Acton, Superintendent of the Assay Office; then 
with Colonel Charles Rikel, of the Army and Navy Club, and 
then with Mr. George Bliss, Justice Morgan, Mr. Benjamin K. 
Phelps, and Assistant District-Attorney Daniel G. Rollins. 

As General Arthur stepped from the car, there was a shout 
of "Lift him!" It had been proposed that the men of the 
Republican associations should bear him on their shoulders to 
his private coach, which was waiting in Forty-second street. 
His face took on a look of perplexity ; then he blushed, and, 
turning to a friend, begged that they might do no such thing, 
and they desisted. Then turning to the multitude, who had 
ceased their huzzas and were waiting for a speech, he said : " I 
thank you for this kind reception, and am glad to see your 
familiar faces again." Cheer upon cheer followed, and General 
7 



98 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

Arthur, supported on one side by Mr. Thomas C. Acton and on 
the other by Mr. Sheridan Shook, walked out to the sidewalk, 
cheered by the thousands inside and outside the depot. On the 
sidewalk a halt was made, and the General expressed a desire 
to be driven to his home without any further demonstration. 
Accordingly he stepped into his coach, and Mr. Sheridan Shook 
and he were driven from the depot. 

Later in the evening a reporter called on the General, and 
found him at home, tired and travel-weary, but courtly and 
genial. General Arthur said he hoped the Convention had done 
its work well and to the satisfaction of the country, and for the 
sake of the party and the people he hoped the ticket would be 
successful. The nomination was such a startling surprise to 
him, he said, that for several hours he did not know whether he 
dared assume the responsibility of accepting it, but, by the 
advice of his friends, he consented at last, and he hoped that 
his name might at least bring some strength to the ticket in this 
State. 

General Arthur was so beset by the hand-shakers in Chicago 
that a ring worn on the fourth finger of his right hand, and 
which ho had not removed from that finger for years, had to be 
filed off, as the continued squeezing had worn the skin off the 
third and fourth fingers and created inflamed sores on them. 
His traveling companions on the homeward trip were Senator 
Dorsey, of Arkansas ; Senator Conover, of Florida ; the Hon. 
John D. Lawson and wife, Police Commissioner French, and 
two personal friends. 

At night the Republicans of New York serenaded General 
Arthur, the rendezvous being made at the plaza, in Union 
Square, at nine o'clock. There was an immense turnout, and 
the line marched in procession to his residence, in Lexington 
avenue, with music and fireworks. 

In his speecli at the ratification meeting at Malone, N. Y., 
Vice-President Wheeler, after speaking in the most compli- 
mentary terms of General Garfield, said : — 

"It is my good fortune also to know well General Arthur, the 
nominee for the Vice-Presidency. In unsullied character and in 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 99 

devotion to the principles of the Republican party, no man in 
the organization surpasses him. No man has contributed more 
of time and means to advance the just interests of the party than 
he. These nominations are the trumpet to summon all the 
wandering tribes of the Republican party to its resplendent 
standard. In this glad, auspicious hour let us all renew our 
fealty to the grand organization in whose keeping the interest 
and destiny of the country alone are secure. Once more 
successful in the coming Presidential election, and the only 
element which has ever disturbed the peace or threatened the 
unity of the nation will cease to be dangerous. The apportion- 
ment to follow the census now being taken will render a united 
South harmless, even when reinforced by a united Northern 
Democracy. This is the great prize for which we now contend, 
and under the leadership of Garfield and Arthur we pledge our- 
selves to do our full share in winning it. And we of the silver 
hairs will take good care to be found upon the outpost with the 
younger men of the party in securing the grand coming triumph 
of the party to which we are attached by every consideration of 
liberty, humanity, and exalted government." 

PRESS OPINIONS OF THE NOMINEES. 

(Press, Philadelphia.) 
The Chicago Convention has done a good work. The 
nomination of James A. Garfield is not only a strong and wise 
one in itself, but it is singularly well calculated to harmonize the 
various factions and thoroughly unite the entire Republican 
party. There is nothing which has been more clearly demon- 
strated than that the first choice of the great mass of Republi- 
cans in those States which had Republican majorities to give 
was James G. Blaine, of Maine. His nomination would have 
been a popular triumph, and would have elicited a display of 
enthusiasm such as no other living American statesman can 
command. The campaign would have been one of unusual 
excitement, as the untiring zeal of his followers would have 
suffered no abatement or omitted no occasions for making its 



100 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

power felt. But zeal and enthusiasm, though of great value in 
a campaign, do not avail beyond a certain point. It is, after 
all, the silent vote that determines the result, and it is by no 
means assured that Mr. Blaine could have rallied the full 
Republican strength. Many whose party allegiance is slack 
had declared against him. This, in connection with scant sup- 
port in certain prominent Republican quarters, would have 
made his election in November far less certain than is that of 
the candidate finally agreed upon. 

Mr. Garfield, unlike most compromise candidates, needs no 
introduction to the country. He has been for many years in 
the public service ; his record is known, his ability has been 
tested, and his character proved over and over again. The 
leadership of his party in the House fell naturally to him, not 
only because he was an able parliamentary tactician, but 
because in the thorough mastery and discussion of economic 
questions he had there no superior. Of broad culture and wide 
human sympathies, moderate in language yet strong in his con- 
victions, with a nice sense of justice, and with a head so uni- 
formly level that no excitement can ruffle it or no sophistry con- 
fuse. When counsel is needed he is ever ready with words of 
sober common sense, which carry conviction in their mere state- 
ment. The country cannot but regard such a man with just 
confidence and deep respect. His is, moreover, one of those 
generous Western natures which, with better acquaintance, 
inspire strong personal attachment. 

The supporters of Blaine, Grant, Sherman, Edmunds, and 
Washburne can each support Garfield with all the zeal and 
interest that they would have given their special candidate. 
The independent voter who thinks little of parties but a great 
deal of candidates will find in General Garfield one who cornea 
up even to his exacting standard. As, owing to the composition 
of the Convention and the divided state of public feeling, it was 
demanded that personal preferences give way to the best interests 
of the entire party, we regard the nomination of Mr. Garfield as 
the most fortunate one which the Convention could have placed 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 101 

befgre the country. TVith his name at the head of their ticket, 
the Republican party will again, as in 1860, carry every North- 
ern State. The spectre of a third term has gone down, and with 
it has disappeared all traces of the fears which calm observers 
everywhere felt of a Democratic triumph next November. 

{Times, New York.) 

In finally choosing for its candidate a gentleman who has 
been but rarely mentioned in connection with the nomination, 
the Republican Convention has by no means selected one who 
is obscure or untried. Mr. Garfield has been long before the 
American people, and has made a fame of which any man might 
be proud. He has won constantly-increasing confidence from 
his immediate constituents, and has, within the year, been 
named by the State of Ohio to represent it in the Senate. When 
the election was made, and Mr. Garfield succeeded to the title 
and the seat which Mr. Thurman has held with so much dis- 
tinction, every one who knew the two men felt that the Senate 
would lose nothing of the ability, the dignity, and the trained 
statesmanship which Ohio had so long contributed to its coun- 
sels, and that it would gain greatly in the new Senator's sound- 
ness of financial conviction and in his devotion to the principles 
which the Republican party believes underlie the Constitution 
of the United States, and give it vitality and force. Mr. Gar- 
field has passed, in his long and conspicuous career in Congress, 
through many crises that have tested the firmness and fidelity 
of Republican leaders. He has not shrunk from them, and the 
reputation which he has gained has been the fruit of toilsome, 
studious, and intelligent devotion to the higher duties of a legis- 
lator under representative institutions. 

The Republicans of the United States will justly feel that 
their cause is safe in his hands as a Presidential candidate. No 
man has been more true to that cause, none has felt more pro- 
foundly the love of freedom, justice, and the Union which has 
been the essence of Republicanism ; none has been more com- 
pletely undiverted and untempted by the sophistries that from 



102 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

time to time threatened the integrity of Republican principles. 
Like his immediate predecessor in the candidacy of the Repub- 
lican party, General Garfield promptly offered his services in 
the suppression of the Rebellion. His record as a soldier is 
highly creditable, and bears ample testimony to his courage, his 
fidelity, and his aptitude for difficult affairs, even for those to 
which his education and his tastes are wholly foreign. He 
entered the army as the Colonel of a regiment made up of his 
neighbors ; he left it after less than three years' service with the 
rank of Major-General, achieved by hard and meritorious 
service, and entered the field of national politics, in which he 
has ever since remained. As a member of Congress, Mr. Gar- 
field has shown eminent qualities. He is not such a leader of 
men as Thaddeus Stevens was or as Mr. Blaine is ; he is neither 
a skillful nor a determined politician, and when he has very 
rarely essayed the arts of that calling, he has signally failed. 
But on numerous occasions he has shown himself easily the 
leader of his party in the House, in his grasp of principles, his 
directness and force of reasoning, his comprehensive mastery of 
facts, his acuteness in detecting the fallacies of his opponents, 
his breadth, vigor, and elevation in the statement of the position 
of his party. 

It is a fortunate thing for the country that the nomination of 
Mr. Garfield will bring prominently into the canvass the finan- 
cial question. On this all-important issue no Republican leader 
has a more satisfactory record, or one calculated to gain more 
thoroughly the confidence of conservative men. He lias been 
uncompromisingly right from first to last, and this because his 
views have been firmly grounded on wide and patient inv 
gation, and on that knowledge of the principles of finance which 
no mere empiricism can replace. During the last Presidential 
campaign, Mr. Garfield's addresses on the currency were by far 
the most able and the most influential of the appeals to the 
popular judgment that were made at that interesting period. 
They presented, as his speeches in Congress have done from time 
to time, the plain controlling facts in reference to the question 



GENERAL. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 103 

with clearness, vigor, and completeness. Any one wno has 
watched the course of our public men in this matter must have 
seen how often it has been easy for most of them to wander from 
the direct path, to yield something to the error and confusion to 
which the long reign of irredeemable paper money had given 
rise, to accept something less than the naked truth in regard to 
the obligation of the Government and the interest of the people 
in regard to sound money. For Mr. Garfield it may be justly 
said that desertion of this kind has never had any attractions. 
He has seen the inevitable consequences of tampering with the 
standard of values, and he has firmly resisted every proposition 
to that effect. 

The contest on which the Republican party nas entered, with 
Mr. Garfield at its head, is to be an arduous one. We have not 
concealed our opinion that it would have been less so with 
another and very different candidate. Had General Grant been 
nominated, the undoubted accession which would have been 
secured in the South would, in our judgment, have rendered the 
result more certain, and have made some of the difficulties, 
which must follow even success, less trying. But our candidate 
represents, with the clearness due to his own eminent qualities 
and his distinguished career, all of the most valued principles of 
the Republican party. He is entitled to the cordial and 
unqualified support of all who cherish those principles, and we 
have entire confidence that, obtaining this, he will be the next 
President of the United States. 

{Inquirer, Philadelphia.) 

The Republican party has in James A. Garfield a candidate 
for whom it can, in good conscience, wage its contention against 
its Democratic opponents valiantly and vigorously. This nomi- 
nation is in itself a great element of strength — an augury of 
success. It was wisely and fittingly made. It honors the party 
as much as it honors the man ; it insures unity, commands 
popular respect and confidence, and it is full of promises of 
triumph. With such a candidate success should be certain. To 
work for such a one will be a pleasure, not a task ; to vote for 



104 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

such a one will be au estimable privilege. The very impulse 
that moved the Convention to effect his nomination will move 
the people to effect his election. Under his leadership the 
Republican party can march, with but a single purpose, to a 
ceitain triumph. 

Just as General Garfield's nomination takes Ohio from the 
list of doubtful States, so does the candidacy of General Chester 
A. Arthur make certain a Republican victory in New York 
next November. He is still a young man, but he has had con- 
siderable experience in public affairs, and his record is one that 
any person might be proud of. 

(Tribune, New York.) 

General Garfield's course had been such as to gain him great 
favor among conservative and moderate men, and it is probable 
that no other man, so completely identified with the party and 
enjoying so fully its confidence, could command so large an 
independent vote. His brilliant record and fine conduct as a 
soldier made him especially popular in the Union army and his 
personal character has been such as to endear him to the people 
among whom he lives, and who have trusted and honored him 
so long ; and his position upon all public questions has been 
such as to render him a worthy candidate of the party of 
loyalty, justice, and public faith. It is particularly to his credit 
that, though accounted a Western man, he has been one of the 
most consistent, unswerving, able, and powerful defenders of 
hard money and national honor. On this account his nomina- 
tion will be welcomed with peculiar satisfaction at the East and 
in the financial and commercial centres. A scholar and states- 
man rather than a mere politician, he has been for many years a 
close student of economic questions, and his steadfast fidelity 
and well-trained intellect have often enabled him to render in. 
valuable service to the cause of public faith in the Committee of 
Ways and Means and in the House. His services in Congress 
as Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, as Chairman 
of the Committee on Banking and Currency, and as Chairman 
of the Committee on Appropriations, has made him peculiarly 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 105 

familiar with departments of national affairs which have been 
studied and well understood by too few of our statesmen. 

The personal qualities of General Garfield as shown through 
all the struggles and excitements of the Convention, made him 
the candidate at last. Hearty and genial in treatment of all 
who come to him with fair cause or honest purpose, he is inflexi- 
ble in his convictions, a staunch friend, and a splendid fighter. 
As the leader of the Sherman forces, he did his full share in 
defeating the unit rule and the third term, and represented bet- 
ter than any other man on the floor the spirit of the anti-Grant 
majority. But from the opening of the Convention to the end 
he did not a thing and uttered not a Avord to increase the bitter- 
ness of personal feeling, or to place a straw in the way of the 
election of any candidate whom the Convention might finally 
nominate. The rare good sense and gentlemanly courtesy of 
his speech in behalf of Mr. Sherman, and especially its earnest 
advice that nothing should be done to impede the election of the 
candidate to be nominated, impressed the Convention strongly,. 
because they revealed to it a man of unusal worth and merit. 
When all others had hesitated, he had been the man to protest 
against the attempted expulsion of the three delegates from 
West Virginia, and by that step had shown both his wisdom 
and his courage When the anti-Grant forces found that com- 
bination upon either of their former candidates was impossible, 
it was most natural that they should turn to the delegate who 
had shown himself their own ablest leader and wisest adviser. 
The qualities which made him strong in the Convention, as they 
become appreciated throughout the country, will make him 
strong to unite the Republican party and to defeat Democracy 
once more. 

( Gazette, Cincinnati.) 

This decision, although quickly executed, was the most 
rational and, in our view, the most successful conclusion of 
the situation. It was no blind impulse, no recourse of reckless 
disappointment, no effort of revenge, no blindfold saddling of a 
dark horse, no trifling with the fate of the party by hasty resent- 



106 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

merit, no leap in the dark, no straining of the allegiance of 
intelligent Republicans by jerking into the nomination a man 
unknown to fame ; it was the nomination of a man of national 
reputation, whose abilities have earned him the recognized place 
of leader of the House of Representatives ; of a man than 
whom no one could better harmonize all the contending factions 
in the Convention ; a man who is the peer of any, who is him- 
self a part of all that is good and glorious in the history of the 
Republican party, who deserves all the honor that belongs to 
the patriotic soldier, who was a statesman thoroughly identified 
with all civil institutions before he left a successful political 
career to serve his country in war, and who has in his 
character and public services as much of those qualities which 
draw the intelligent enthusiasm of the people for the man they 
have chosen for leader as any man whom either of the several 
parties in the Convention could have named. Therefore do we 
hail the nomination as a great deliverance, and as a regenerat- 
ing triumph for the Republican party. 

Tribune, Chicago.) 
From one end of .the nation to the other, from distant Oregon 
to Texas, from Maine to Arizona, lightning has informed the 
countrv of the nomination yesterday of General James A. Gar- 
field as the Republican candidate for the Presidency. Never 
was a nomination made which has been received by friend and 
foe with such evidence of hearty respect, admiration, and con- 
fidence. The applause is universal. Even the Democratic 
House of Representatives suspended its business that it might 
congratulate the country upon the nomination of the distin- 
guished leader of the Republicans. James Abraham Garfield 
is, in the popular mind, one of the foremost statesmen of the 
nation. He is comparatively a young man, but in his service 
he commands the confidence and admiration of his countrymen 
of all parties. His ability, his thorough study, and his long 
practical experience in political matters gives an assurance to 
the country that he will carry to the Presidential office a mind 
superior, because of its natural qualifications and training, to 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 107 

any that has preceded him for many years. He will be a Presi- 
dent worthy in every sense to fill the office in a way that the 
country will like to see it filled, with ability, learning, experi- 
ence, and integrity. That General Garfield will be elected we 
have no question. He is a candidate worthy of election, and 
will command not only every Republican vote in the country, 
but the support of tens of thousands of non-partisans who want 
to see a President combining intellectual ability with learning, 
experience, and ripe statesmanship. 

American, Baltimore.) 

If General Garfield was a " dark horse " in the sense that he 
was not a candidate for the nomination, he was not a " dark 
horse " in the sense that he was an obscure negative man. On 
the contrary, there is no man in the country who has rendered 
more constant and laborious public service, or whose opinions 
on all public questions are more fully and completely put on 
record. As the leader of his party in the House of Representa- 
tives he occupies the position which under the English constitu- 
tional system would entitle him to the Premiership. In his case 
the candidate is, indeed, the platform, and makes any defects or 
shortcomings in that document a matter of small moment. 
There is accessible to every one in the files of the Congressional 
Record for the last seventeen years a vast body of his utterances 
that will enable the policy of his administration to be estimated 
with a certainty which has never existed with regard to any 
other Presidential candidate. 

(Journal, Boston.) 

The selection of General Garfield as the Republican candi- 
date for President will meet the hearty approval of the entire 
Republican party. For ten years no man has possessed in a 
greater degree the confidence and esteem of the mass of intelli- 
gent Republican voters. His expressions of Republican prin- 
ciples have been accepted as the best possible exposition of 
Republican ideas and purposes. The stalwarts can support 
him with the heartiest enthusiasm because he holds to the creed 
which they believe to be most essential. The independent 



108 GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

Republican can give the nominee his most cordial support 
because G oeral Garfield has always been identified with that 
element which would elevate the tone of national politics, 
i National Republican, Washington. 

The nomination is not as much of a surprise as was that of 
Mr. Hayes in L876, and is certain to be stronger with the peo- 
ple. General Garfield combines the best elements of the soldier 
and the statesman, and he will not lose asingle Republican vote 
in the United Stairs which would have been cast for General 
Grant. To sum up, we think the choice of the Convention is 
stronger as a candidate than would have been any one of those 
who were prominent as opponents of General Grant, and that 
he will be satisfactory to every sure Republican State, will put 
Ohio beyond dispute, and will succeed in the doubtful States 
against any man the Democrats can possibly select. 

C. E. Smith, Esq., editor of the Philadelphia Press, who has 
been long and intimately acquainted with General Chester A. 
Arthur, thus strongly approves and endorses his nomination :— 

"Whatever criticisms have been made upon the nomination 
of General Arthur for Vice-President rest upon an entire mis- 
conception of the character and quality of the mau. The 
selection was sagacious in a political point of view and alto- 
gether fit upon personal grounds. It makes the assurance of 
carrying New York doubly sure, and, if successful, it elevates to 
the second office in the nation a trained and experienced public 
man, whose intellectual and social accomplishments and whose 
personal worth will adorn that high position. A shrewd piece 
of strategy for the canvass, it is no less fortunate for the high 
demands of the public service. 

" Those who know General Arthur only as a man who has for 
years been active in political management have a very inade- 
quate idea of his rank and range. With all his ardent and 
efficient labors for Republicanism — and certainly they will not 
make those who follow its flag think any less of him — he has 
never sunk the spirit of chivalry or the soul of honor in the 
work of party. He has been justly described as an illustration 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

of the gentleman in politics. A lawyer of high stan 
student of broad and varied culture, his wide reading instant at 
his command, of fine presence, with rare social gifts and 
possessing the aptitude which meets any demand, without an 
enemy in the world, equally ready in a story or a quotation, and 
as much at home in the library as in the committee-room, 
genial, chivalrous, and popular, he deserves and receives the 
hearty respect of all who know him. There is no duty of the 
office for which he is named — whether it be presiding over the 
Senate or sharing the counsels of the administration or shining 
in the circles of the capital — for which he is not well qualified. 
With his high character and ability the country may accept 
him for this exalted trust without hesitation. 

" Apart from hisfitness, General Arthur has strong claims upon 
the Republicans of the land. No man has done more during 
the past ten years to secure Republican success in all close andV. 
doubtful contests. In every hard battle other States have called 
upon New York for help — and as General Arthur has been the 
head and front of the organization in that city, the appeal has 
been made to him — and they have never called in vain. 
Whether it was Connecticut and New Hampshire in the spring, 
or Ohio and Indiana in the fall, he never failed to respond. 
The confidence reposed in him by the business community is 
such that they always honored his drafts. Even in 1876, when 
Ohio had the Presidential candidate and every stimulus to rely 
on herself, it was the effort of General Arthur and of those who 
co-operated with him which did much to save her. In his own 
State he has repeatedly met the Democracy in the very citadel 
of their strength, and the vigor with which he has always fought 
and .often triumphed has inspired the attachment of friends and 
the respect of foes. 

" But it is said that he was removed from the Custom House. 
True, but there was nothing in the fact which reflected on his 
honor or his fitness for high public trust. Everybody knows 
that the removal was made upon political grounds. If it be 
said that the President and the Secretary of the Treasury 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHTTR. 

ted the integrity of his administration, they have them- 
selves furnished the answer. In taking the steps for his dis- 
placement, the President tendered him the honorable appoint- 
inen i. >f Consul-General to Paris. How could he have done this 
if thi re had been anything derogatory to General Arthur's 
de ? Again, Mr. Cornell was General Arthur's colleague 
in th< Custom House, and was removed at the same time for the 
reasons. Last fall Mr. Cornell was nominated for 
nor, and Secretary Sherman went into New York and advo- 
his election. How could he have done this if there had 
mything in the removal which reflected on Mr. Cornell's 
Lai or official character? Nay, more, Secretary Sherman 
illy and publicly declared that there was nothing in the 
rich militated against Mr. Cornell's advancement to high 
public station. And if not in his case, how in General 
^Arthur's? 

"But again, it is said that General Arthur is a ' machine 
man.' True, he holds that a party must have organization, 
like an army, and lie has been conspicuous in this indispensable 
work. But he believes at the same time that the organization 
should be responsive to just public sentiment — and to that sort 
of machino no one has any objection. There are two classes of 
men in politics — first, those who would carry personal and 
political purposes without regard to the public feeling, and, 
second, those who would move the organization in harmony with 
the popular convictions. General Arthur belongs to the latter 
class. We could cite repeated cases in proof that his great 
influence has been used to mould the party action in deference to 
the judgment of the people. He is an intelligent, penetrating, 
judicious leader, and he would make his party the strong right 
arm of the popular will. 

" The Convention made no mistake in nominating General 
Arthur. It was a wise act to give the second place to the 
minority. Garfield and Arthur together harmonize and unite 
all elements of the party. General Arthur represents the busi- 
ness and working forces of New York, and his nomination is 



GENERAL CHESTER A. ARTHUR. HI 

worth ten thousand votes in that city and State. He is the 
strongest candidate that could be named at the point where 
strength is most needed," 



THE PLATFORM. 

A SOUND, STRAIGHTFORWARD EXPOSITION OF REPUBLICAN 
DOCTRINE. 

The Republican party in national Convention assembled, at 
the end of twenty years since the Federal Gevernment was first 
committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United 
States this brief report of its administration. It suppressed re- 
bellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the 
national authority. [Applause.] It reconstructed the union 
of the States with freedom instead of slavery as its corner-stone. 
[Applause.] It transformed 4,000,000 human beings from the 
likeness of things to the rank of citizens. [Applause.] It re- 
lieved Congress from the infamous work of hunting fugitive 
slaves, and charged it to see that slavery does not exist. It has 
raised the value of our paper currency from 38 per cent, to the 
par of gold. [Cheers.] It has restored upon a solid basis 
payment in coin for all the national obligations and has given 
us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our 
extended country. It has lifted the care of the nation from the 
point from where six-per-cent. bonds sold at 86 to that where 
four-per-cent. bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. Under 
its administration railways have increased from 31,000 miles in 
1860 to more than 82,000 miles in 1879. Our foreign trade has 
increased from $700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 in the same time, 
and our exports, which were $20,000,000 less than our imports 
in 1860, were $264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. 
[Applause.] Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war 
closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of the Government, be 
sides the accruing interest on the public debt, and dispensed 
annually more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions. It has 
paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and by refunding the 
balance at lower rates has reduced the annual interest charged 
from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. All the in- 



THE PLATFORM. 113 

dustries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, wages 
have increased, and throughout the entire country there is evi- 
dence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. 
Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued 
confidence and support of the people, and this Convention sub- 
mits for their approval the following statement of the principles 
and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its 
efforts. 

First. — We affirm that the work of the last twenty-one years 
has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, 
and that the fruits of the costly victory which we have achieved 
through immense difficulties should be preserved; after that the 
peace regained should be cherished ; that the dissevered Union 
now happily restored should be perpetuated; and that the liberty 
secured to this generation should be transmitted undiminished 
to future generations; that the order established and the credit 
acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised 
should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar 
thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted, 
and that the commerce already so great should be steadily 
encouraged. 

Second. — The Constitution of the United States is a supreme 
law, and not a mere contract. Out of confederated States it 
made a sovereign nation. Some powers are denied to the nation 
while others are denied to the States, but the boundary between 
the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by 
the national and not by the State tribunals. [Applause.] 

Third. — The work of popular education is one left to the care 
of the several States, but it is the duty of the national Govern- 
ment to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional power. 
The intelligence of the nation is but the aggregate of the 
intelligence of the several States, and the destiny of the 
nation must not be guided by the genius of any one State, but 
by the average genius of all. 

Fourth. — The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make 
any law respecting an establishment of religion, but it is idle to 
8 



114 THE PLATFORM. 

hope that the nation can be protected against the influence of 
sectarianism, while each State is exposed to its domination ; we» 
therefore, recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to 
lay the same prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, and 
to forbid the appropriation of public funds to the support of 
sectarian schools. [Cheers.] 

Fifth.— We affirm the belief, avowed in 1876, that the duties 
levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to 
favor American labor [applause] ; that no further grant of the 
public domain should be made to any railway or other corpora- 
tion ; that slavery, having perished in the States, its twin bar- 
barity, polygamy, must die in the Territories [applause] ; that 
everywhere the protection accorded to citizens of American 
birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption ; that 
we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our 
water-courses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to 
private persons or corporations must cease ; that the obligations 
of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the 
hour of battle are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years 
since their final victory. To do them perpetual honor is and 
shall forever be the grateful privilege and sacred duty of the 
American people. 

Sixth. — Since the authority to regulate immigration and inter- 
course between the United States and foreign nations rests with 
the Congress or with the United States and its treaty-making 
power, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigra- 
tion of Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise 
of those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the 
enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as 
will produce that result. 

Seventh. — That the purity and patriotism which characterize 
the earlier career of Rutherford B. Hays in peace and war, and 
which guided the thoughts of our immediate predecessors to him 
for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in 
his career as Chief Executive, and that history will accord to 
his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just. 



THE PLATFORM. 



115 



and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor 
his interpositions between the people and proposed partisan 
laws. [Cheers.] 

Eighth. — "We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual 
sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable 
lust of office and patronage ; that to obtain possession of the 
national and State Governments and the control of place and 
position, they have obstructed all effort to promote the purity 
and to conserve the freedom of suffrage, and have devised 
fraudulent certifications and returns, have labored to unseat 
lawfully-elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazards 
the vote of a majority of the States in the House of Kepresen- 
tatives ; have endeavored to occupy by force and fraud the 
places of trust given to others by the people of Maine and 
rescued by the courage in action of Maine's patriotic sons ; have, 
by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, 
attached partisan legislation to bills upon whose passage the 
very movements of government depend ; have crushed the 
rights of individuals ; have advocated the principle and sought 
the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have endeavored 
to obliterate the sacred memories of the war and to overcome its 
inestimable valuable results of nationality, personal freedom 
and individual equality. The equal, steady, and complete en- 
forcement of laws, and the protection of all privileges and 
immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first duties 
of the nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be 
averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the 
nation has made to the citizens. The execution of the laws 
and the punishment of all those who violate them are the only 
safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured and 
genuine prosperity established throughout the South. What- 
ever promises the nation makes, the nation must perform, and 
the nation cannot with safety relegate this duty to the States. 
The solid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the 
ballot, and all opinions must there find free expression, and to 
this end the honest votes must be protected against terrorism, 



116 THE PLATFORM. 

violence, or fraud, and we affirm it to be the duty and the pur- 
pose of the Republican party to use every legitimate means to 
restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony 
as may be practicable ; and we submit to the practical, sensible 
people, of the United States to say whether it would not be 
dangerous to the dearest interests of our country, at this time, 
to surrender the administration of the national Government to 
a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under 
which we are so prosperous and thus bring distrust and confu- 
sion where there is now order, confidence, and hope. 

Ninth. — The Rejmblican party, adhering to the principles 
affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the con- 
stitutional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the 
declaration of President Hayes, that the reform in the civil 
service shall be thorough, radical, and complete. To that end it 
demands the co-operation of the Legislative with the Executive 
departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so 
legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall 
admit to the public service. 



THE NEW NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 

ITS MEMBERS AS DESIGNATED BY THE RESPECTIVE DELEGATIONS. 

Alabama Paul Strabach. 

Arkansas W. Dorsey. 

California Horace Davis 

Colorado ?? h \ L ii^? 11 

Connecticut Marshall Jewell. 

Delaware S^^w ^l 

Florida William W. Hicks. 

Georgia James BDeveaux. 

Illinois John A. Logan. 

Indiana JohnC.lNew. 

j owa John S. Runnelly. 

Kansas"""!'.'.'.'.'. John A Martin. 

Kentucky W.O.B radley 

Louisiana H-C. Warmouth. 

Maine William T Frye. 

Maryland James A. Cary. 

Massachusetts John M. Forbes. 

Michigan James H. Stone. 

Minnesota D. M. Sabm. 

Mississippi George McKee. 

Missouri C. J- Filley 

Nebraska James W. Dawes. 

Nevada John W. Mackey. 

New Hampshire W. E. Chandler. 

New Jersey George A. Halsey. 

New York Thomas C. Piatt. 

North Carolina. '.'.'.'. '.'.'.'. W. P. Canady. 

Ohio W. C. Cooper. 

Oregon D.C.Ireland. 

Pennsylvania J.D.Cameron. 

Rhode Island W.A.Pierce. 

South Carolina Samuel Lee. 

Tennessee William Rule. 

Texas Unready. 

Vermont Geo. W. Hooker. 

Virginia Samuel M. Jones. 

West Virginia John W.Mason. 



118 THE NEW NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 

"Wisconsin Elihu Enos. 

Arizona R. C. McCormick. 

Dakota Unable to agree. 

District of Columbia Not ready. 

Idaho George L. Shoup? 

Montana A. H. Beatty. 

New Mexico S. T. Elkin. 

Utah W. Bennett. 

Washington T.T.Miner. 

Wyoming Joseph L. Cary. 



JIM GARFIELD 'S AT THE FRONT. 

["General Garfield proceeded to the front." — General JRom- 
crans's official report of the Battle of ChicJcamauga.~\ 

Once more the grand old fight is on, the fight we've often 

fought, 
And as we've done these twenty years, we'll bring our foes 

to naught. 
We won with Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes, and in this 

battle's brunt 
We'll conquer to the rallying cry — Jini Garfield 's at the 

front. 

Chorus — Jim Garfield 's at the front ! 
Jim Garfield 's at the front! 
'Twould be a sin to fail to win 
With Garfield at the front. 

He early learned to paddle well his own forlorn canoe ; 

Upon Ohio's " grand canal " he held the helm true, 

And now the people shout to him : " Lo ! 'tis for you we 

wait — 
We want to see Jim Garfield guide our glorious ship of 

State." 
Chorus. 

He was a carpenter of yore, and to this day he seems 

To love to nail (old Bourbon lies) and hammer (rebel 

schemes) : 
We'll wager, and the bet we know will go without a taker, 
This carpenter, come the ides of March, will be a cabinet- 
maker ! 
Chorus. 



120 JIM GARFIELD 's AT THE FRONT. 

He taught the young ideas to shoot, and then the plucky 

tutor 
In war's grim school was taught to be another sort of 

shooter ; 
He braved, to aid the Union's cause, full many a battle's 

brunt, 
And those who sought his whereabouts found Garfield at 

the front. 
Chorus. 

When Uncle Sam, November next, shall count the ballots 

o'er, 
One shout shall shake the continent, loud as the ocean's 

roar: 
"Once more the hosts Republican have borne the battle's 

brunt, 
Once more they've triumphed gloriously — with Garfield at 

the front." 

Chorus — With Garfield at the front ! 
With Garfield at the front! 
We're sure to gain this grand campaign 
With Garfield at the f.'ont! 

— Albany Journal. 



A Statesman's Views of what Constitutes Good 
Government. 



National Sovereignty. — A Free Ballot. — Honest 

Money. — Protection to Home Industry and 

Obedience to the Constitution. 



Mentor, Ohio, July 12, 1880. 
Dear Sir: — On the evening of the 8th of June last I had the honor to 
receive from you, in presence of the Committee of which you were Chairman, 
the official announcement that the Republican National Convention at Chicago 
had that day nominated me for their candidate for President of the United 
vStates. I accept the nomination with gratitude for the confidence it implies 
and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. 

NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY MAINTAINED. 

I candidly indorse the principles set forth in the platform adopted by the 
Convention on nearly all the subjects of which it treats. My opinions are on 
record among the published proceedings of Congress. I venture, however, 
to make special mention of some of the principal topics which are likely to 
become subjects of discussion. Without reviewing the controversies which 
have been settled during the last twenty years, and with no purpose or wish 
to revive the passions of the late war, it should be said that while Republicans 
fully recognize and will strenuously defend all the rights retained by the people 
and all the rights reserved to the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of 
State supremacy which so long crippled the functions of the National Govern- 
ment and at one time brought the Union very near to destruction. They in- 
sisted that the United States is a nation with ample power of self-preserva- 
tion ; that its Constitution and laws made in pursuance thereof are the supreme 
law of the land ; that the right of the nation to determine the method by which 
its own legislature shall be created cannot be surrendered without abdicating 



122 GENERAL GARFIELD'S ACCEPTANCE. 

one of the fundamental powers of the Government ; that the national laws 
relating to the election of Representatives in Congress shall neither be violated 
nor evaded; that every elector shall be permitted freely and without intimida- 
tion to cast his lawful ballot at such election and have it honestly counted, and 
that the potency of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of 
any other person. The best thoughts and energies of our people should be 
directed to those great questions of national well-being in which all have a 
common interest. Such efforts will soon restore perfect peace to those who 
were lately in arms against each other, for justice and good-will will outlast 
passion ; but it is certain that the wounds of the war cannot be completely 
healed and the spirit of brotherhood cannot fully pervade the whole country 
until every citizen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure in the free and 
equal and unrestricted enjoyment of every civil and political right guaranteed 
by the Constitution and the laws. Wherever the enjoyment of this right is 
not assured, discontent will prevail, immigration will cease, and the social and 
industrial forces will continue to be disturbed by the migration of laborers and 
the consequent diminution of prosperity. The National Government should 
exercise all its constitutional authority to put an end to these evils, for all the 
people and all the States are members of one body, and no member can suffer 
without injury to all. The most serious evils which now afflict the South 
arise from the fact that there is not such freedom and toleration of political 
opinion and action that the minority party can exercise an effective and whole 
some restraint upon the party in power. Without such restraint party rule 
becomes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity which is made possible in 
the South by its great advantage of soil and climate will never be realized 
until every voter can freely and safely support any party he pleases. 

THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without 
which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its inter- 
ests are intrusted to the States and the involuntary action of the people. 
Whatever help the nation can justly afford should be generously given to aid 
the States in supporting common schools; but it would be unjust to cur people 
and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of the revenues of the 
nation or of the States to the support of sectarian schools. The separation of 
the Church and the State in everything relating to taxation should be abso- 
lute. 

REPUBLICAN FINANCIAL POLICY SUSTAINED. 

On the subject of national finances my views have been so frequently and 
fully expressed that little is needed in the way of additional statement. The 
public debt is now so well secured, and the rate of annual interest has been 
so reduced by refunding, that rigid economy in expenditures and the faithful 
application of our surplus revenues to the payment of the principal ol the debt 



GENERAL GARFIELD'S ACCEPTANCE. 123 

will gradually but certainly free the people from its burdens and close with 
honor the financial chapter of the war. At the same time the Government 
can provide for all its ordinary expenditures, and discharge its sacred obliga- 
tions to the soldier of the Union and to the widows and orphans of those who 
fell in its defense. The resumption of specie payments which the Republican 
party so courageously and successfully accomplished has removed from the 
field of controversy many questions that long and seriously disturbed the credit 
of the Government and the business of the country. Our paper currency is 
now as national as the flag, and resumption has not only made it everywhere 
equal to coin, but has brought into use our store of gold and silver. The cir- 
culating medium is more abundant than ever before, and we need only to 
maintain the equality of all our dollars to insure to labor and capital a mea- 
sure of value from the use of which no one can suffer loss. The great pros- 
perity which the country is now enjoying should not be endangered by any 
violent changes or doubtful financial experiments. 

TROTECT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES. 
In reference to our customs laws a policy should be pursued which will 
bring revenues to the Treasury, and will enable the labor and capital em- 
ployed in our great industries to compete fairly in our own markets with the 
labor and capital of foreign producers. We legislate for the people of the 
United States, not for the whole world, and it is our glory that the American 
laborer is more intelligent and better paid than his foreign competitor. Our 
country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant natural 
resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, arm, and equip them- 
selves for war, and in time of peace to produce all the necessary implements 
of labor. It was the manifest intention of the founders of the Government 
to provide for the common defense, not by standing armies alone, but by 
raising among the people a greater army of artisans whose intelligence and 
skill should powerfully contribute to the safety and glory of the nation. 

OUR COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. 
Fortunately for the interests of commerce, there is no longer any formidable 
opposition to appropriations for the improvement of our harbors and great 
navigable rivers, provided that the expenditures for that purpose are strictly 
limited to works of national importance. The Mississippi River, with its great 
tributaries, is of such vital importance to so many millions of people that the 
safety of its navigation requires exceptional consideration. In order to secure 
to the nation the control of all its waters President Jefferson negotiated the 
purchase of a vast territory, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific 
Ocean. The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by 
which that great river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its 
banks and by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of 



124 GENERAL GARFIELD'S ACCEPTANCE. 

twenty-five millions of people. The interests of agriculture, which is the 
basis of all our material prosperity, and in which seven-twelfths of our popu- 
lation arc engaged, as well as the interests of manufactures and commerce, 
demand that the facilities for cheap transportation shall be increased by the 
use of all our great water-courses. 

RESTRICT CHINESE IMMIGRATION. 

The material interests of this country, the traditions of its settlement, and the 
sentiment of our people have led the Government to offer the widest hospitality 
to emigrants who seek our shores for new and happier homes, willing to share 
the burdens as well as the benefits of our society, and intending that their 
posterity shall become an undistinguishable part of our population. The recent 
movement of the Chinese to our Pacific coast partakes Jjut little of the quali- 
ties of such an immigration, either in its purposes or its result. It is too much 
like an importation to be welcomed without restriction; too much like an in- 
vasion to be looked upon without solicitude. We cannot consent to allow any 
form of servile labor to be introduced among us under the guise of immigration. 
Recognizing the gravity of this subject, the present Administration, supported 
by Congress, has sent to China a commission of distinguished citizens for the 
purpose of securing such a modification of the existing treaty as will prevent 
evils likely to arise from the present situation. It is confidently believed thai 
these diplomatic negotiations will be successful without the loss of commercial 
intercourse between the two great powers, which promise a great increase of 
reciprocal trade and the enlargement of our markets. Should these efforts 
fail, it will be the duty of Congress to mitigate the evils already felt, and 
prevent their increase by such restrictions as, without violence or injustice, 
will place upon a sure foundation the peace of our communities and the free- 
dom and dignity of labor. 

TENURE OF OFFICE SHOULD BE FIXED. 
The appointment of citizens to the various executive and judicial offices of 
the Government is perhaps the most difficult of all duties which the Constitu- 
tion has imposed upon the Executive. The Convention wisely demands that 
Congress shall co-operate with the Executive Departments in placing the Civil 
Service on a better basis. Experience has proved that with our frequent 
changes of administration no system of reform can be made effective and per- 
manent without the aid of legislation. Appointments to the military and 
naval service are so regulated by law and custom as to have but little ground 
of complaint. It may not be wise to make similar regulations by law for the 
civil service, but without invading the authority or necessary discretion of the 
Executive, Congress should devise a method that will determine the tenure of 
office and greatly reduce the uncertainty which makes that service so uncertain 
and unsatisfactory. Without depriving any officer of his rights as a citizen, the 



GENERAL GARFIELD'S ACCEPTANCE. 125 

Government should require him to discharge all his official duties with intelli- 
gence, efficiency, and faithfulness. To select wisely from our vast population 
those who are best fitted for the many offices to be filled requires an acquain- 
tance far beyond the range of any one man. The Executive should, therefore, 
seek and receive the information and assistance of those whose knowledge 
of the communities in which the duties are to be performed best qualifies them 
to aid in making the wisest choice. 

HIS POLICY IF ELECTED. 

The doctrines announced by the Chicago Convention are not the temporary 
devices of a party to attract votes and carry an election. They are deliberate 
convictions resulting from a careful study of the spirit of our institutions, the 
events of our history, and the best impulses of our people. In my judgment 
these principles should control the legislation and administration of the Gov- 
ernment. In any event, they will guide my conduct until experience points 
out a better way. If elected, it will be my purpose to enforce strict obedience 
to the Constitution and the laws, and to promote as best I may the interest 
and honor of the whole country, relying for support upon the wisdom of Con- 
gress, the intelligence and patriotism of the people, and the favor of ( rod. 
Willi great it-spect, I am very truly yours, 

J. A. GARFIELD. 
Zb Hon. George /•'. Hoar, Chairman of the Commit/,, . 



The Full Text of One of the Strongest Political 

Don \i i:\i- of the Year 



New York, July 15, 1880. 

DEAR Sir: — I accept the position assigned me by the great party whose 
action you announce. This acceptance implies approval of the principles de- 
clared by the Convention, but recent usage permits me to add some expression 
of my own views. The right and duty to secure honesty and order in popu- 
lar elections is a matter so vital that it must stand in front. The authority ot 
the National Government to preserve from fraud and force elections at which 
its own officers are chosen is a chief point on which the two parties are 
plainly and intensely opposed. Acts of < longress for ten years have, in New 
York and elsewhere, done much to curb the violence and wrong to which the 
ballot and the count have been again and again subjected — sometimes 
despoiling great cities, sometimes stifling the voice of a whole State, often 
seating, not only in Congress, but on the bench and in legislatures, numbers 
of men never chosen by the people. The Democratic party, since gaining 
possession of the two houses of Congress, has made these just laws the object 
of bitter, ceaseless assault, and, despite all resistance, has hedged, them with 
restrictions cunningly contrived to battle and paralyze them. This" aggressive 
majority boldly attempted to extort from the Executive his approval of vari- 
ous enactments destructive of these election laws by revolutionary threats 
that a constitutional exercise of the veto power would be punished by with- 
holding the appropriations necessary to carry on the Government. And these 
threats were actually carried out by refusing the needed appropriations, and 
by forcing an extra session of Congress, lasting for months, and resulting in 
concessions to this usurping demand, which are likely, in many States, to 
subject the majority to the lawless will of a minority. Ominous signs of 
public disapproval alone subdued this arrogant power into a sullen surrender 
for the time being of a part of its demands. The Republican party has 
strongly approved the stern refusal of its representatives to suffer the over- 
throw of statutes believed to be salutary and just. It has always insisted, and 
now insists, that the Government of the United States of America is empow- 
ered and in duty bound to effectually protect the elections denoted by the 
Constitution as national. 

PROTIXTION FOR EVERY CITIZEN. 

More than this, the Republican party holds, as a cardinal point in its creed, 
that the Government should, by every means known to the Constitution, pro- 
tect all American citizens everywhere in the full enjoyment of their civil and 
political rights. As a great part of its work of reconstruction, the Republi- 
can party gave the ballot to the emancipated slave as his right and defense. 
A large increase in the number of members of Congress and of the Electoral 
College, from the former slaveholding States, was the immediate result. The 
history of recent years abounds in evidence that in many ways and in many 



GENERAL ARTHUR'S ACCEPTANCE. 127 

places— especially where their number has been great enough to endanger 
Democratic control — the very men by whose elevation to citizenship this 
increase of representation was effected have been debarred and robbed of 
their voice and their vote. It is true that no State statute or Constitution in 
so many words denies or abridges the exercise of their political rights ; but 
the modes employed to bar their way are no less effectual. It is a suggestive 
and startling thought that the increased power derived from the enfranchise- 
ment of a race now denied its share in governing the country — wielded by 
those who lately sought the overthrow of the Government— is now the sole 
reliance to defeat the party which represented the sovereignty and nationality 
of the American people in the greatest crisis of our history. Republicans 
cherish none of the resentments which may have animated them during the 
actual conflict of arms. They long for a full and real reconciliation between 
the sections which were needlessly and lamentably at strife; they sincerely 
offer the hand of good-will, but they ask in return a pledge of good faith. 
They deeply feel that the party whose career is so illustrious in great and 
patriotic achievement will not fulfill its destiny until peace and prosperity are 
established in all the land, nor until liberty' ol thought, conscience, and action, 
and equality of opportunity shall be not merely cold formalities of statute, but 
living birthrights, which the humble may confidently claim and the powerful 
dare not deny. 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 
The resolution referring to the public service seems to me deserving of 
approval. Surely, no man should be the incumbent of an office the duties of 
which he is, for any cause, unfit to perform, who is lacking in the ability, 
fidelity, or integrity which a proper administration of such office demands. 
This sentiment would doubtless meet with general acquiescence, but opinion 
has been widely divided upon the wisdom and practicability of the various 
reformatory schemes which have been suggested, and of certain proposed 
regulations governing appointments to public office. The efficiency of such 
regulations has been distrusted, mainly because they have seemed to exalt 
mere educational and abstract tests above general business capacity, and even 
special fitness for the particular work in hand. It ceems to me that the rules 
which should be applied to the management of the public service may pro- 
perly conform, in the main, to such as regulate the conduct of successful 
private business. Original appointments should be based upon ascertained 
fitness. The tenure of office should be stable. Positions of responsibility 
should, so far as practicable, be filled by the promotion of worthy and efficient 
officers. The investigation of all complaints, and the punishment of all 
official misconduct, should be prompt and thorough. These views, which 
I have long held, repeatedly declared, and uniformly applied when called 
upon to act, I find embodied in the resolution, which, of course, I approve. 
1 will add that, by the acceptance of public office, whether high or low, one 
does not, in my judgment, escape any of his responsibilities as a citizen, or 
lose or impair any ot his rights as a citizen, and that he should enjoy absolute 
liberty to think and speak and act in political matters according to his own 
will and conscience, provided only that he honorably, faithfully, and fully dis- 
charges all his official duties. 

RESU>*TION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 

The resumption of specie payments — one of the fruits of Republican policy 
— has brought the return of abundant prosperity, and the settlement of many 






128 GENERAL ARTHUR'S ACCEPTANCE. 



distracting questions. The restoration of sound money, the large reduction of 
our public debt and of the burden of interest, the high advancement of the 
public credit, all attest the ability and courage of the Republican parly to deal 
with such financial problems us may hereafter demand solution. ( >ur paper 
currency is now as good as gold, and silver is performing its legitimate func- 
tion for the purpose of change. The principles which should govern the 
relations of these elements of the currency are simple and clear. There must 
be no deteriorated coin, no depreciated paper. And every dollar, whether of 
metal or paper, should stand the test of the world's fixed standard. 

The value of popular education can hardly be overstated. Although its 
interests must of necessity be chiefly confided to voluntary effort and the indi- 
vidual action of the several States, they should be encouraged, so far as the 
Constitution permits, by the generous co-operation of the National Govern- 
ment. The interests of the whole country demand that the advantages of our 
i "inmon-school system should be brought within the reach of every citizen, 
and that no revenues of the nation or of the States should be devoted to the 
support of sectarian schools. 

Such changes should be mule in the present tariff and system of taxation as 
will relieve any overburdened industry or class, and enable our manufacturers 
and artisans to compete successfully with those of other lands. 

The Government should aid works of internal improvement national in 
their character, and should promote the development of our water-courses and 
harbors wherever the general interests of commerce require. 

THE PARTY'S CLAIM TO CONFIDENCE. 

Four years ago, as now, the nation stood at the threshold of a Presidential 
election, and the Republican party, in soliciting a continuance of its ascen 
dancy, founded its hope of success, not upon its promises, but upon its history. 
Its subsequent course has been Mich as to strengthen the claims which it then 
made to the confidence and support of the country. On the other hand, con- 
siderations more urgent than have ever before existed, forbid the accession of 
its opponents to power. Their success, if success attends them, must chiefly 
come from the united support of that section which sought the forcible dis 
ruption of the Union, and which, according to all the teachings of our pa ' 
history, will demand ascendancy in the councils of the party to whose triumph 
it will have made by far the largest contribution. 

There is the garvest reason for apprehension that exorbitant claims upon the 
public treasury, by no means limited to the hundreds of millions already 
covered by bills introduced in Congress within the past four years, would be 
successfully urged if the Democratic party should succeed in supplementing 
its present control of the National Legislature by electing the Executive also. 

There is danger in intrusting the control of the whole law-making power 
of the Government to a party which has in almost every Southern State repu- 
diated obligations quite assacred as those to which the faith of the nation now 
pledged. 

I do not doubt that suc< ess awaits the Republican party, and that its triumph 
will assure a just, economical, and patriotic administration. 1 am, respect 
fully, your obedient servant, 

C. A. ARTHUR. 

To the Hon. George F. Hour, Pres. of the Republican National Convention 



